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Dogs

Vineyard

in

the

A Roleplaying Game

Written by D. Vincent Baker

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Dogs in the Vineyard

—

A lumpley game

GenCon

’

05

Printed in OldStyle, Oldstyle Small Caps, and Oldstyle

Italic, old linotype fonts reproduced by the H. P.

Lovecraft Historical Society

Book Design by D. Vincent Baker and Joshua Newman

ISBN 0-9769042-0-9

Contents

i: How To Play – 5

Introduction — If You’ve Never Roleplayed Before —

What’s it like to play? — Before You Play — All This and

Platonic Too — At the First Session — From Then On

ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue – 11

Setting — The Landscape — The Faith — Towns — Food

and Fashion — Guns — The Mountain People — The

Territorial Authority — Back East — Nonbelievers

iii: Creating Characters – 21

Overview — Procedure — Background — Going

Forward — Leaving Play — GMing Character Creation

Creating Characters: Recap – 50

iv: Conflict & Resolution – 53

Overview — The Simple Case — Escalating — Using

Traits and Things — Giving — Fallout — Follow-up

Conflicts — Using Relationships — Multiple Opponents

— Helping — Using Ceremony — Demonic Influence

— GMing Conflicts

Conflict & Resolution: Recap – 78

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5

v: Resolution in Action – 85

Split Seconds — Other Time Tricks — Bodyguards —

Ambush — Life or Death — Special Effects

vi: The Structure of the Game – 93

Character Creation — Long-term Play: Each Character’s

Service as a Dog — Short-term Play: Each Town —

Short-term Play: Between Towns — Long-term Play: At

the End of a Dog’s Service

vii: Creating Towns – 97

Pride — Injustice — Sin — Demonic Attacks — False

Doctrine — Corrupt Worship — False Priesthood —

Sorcery — Hate and Murder — Procedure

viii: Between Towns – 121

Reflection — Direction — GMing Between Towns

ix: Creating NPCs – 125

Proto-NPCs — NPCs in Play — Groups — Possessed

People — Sorcerers — Demons? — Names

Creating NPCs: Recap – 135

x: How To GM – 137

Play the town — Drive play toward conflict — Actively

reveal the town in play — Follow the players’ lead about

what’s important — Escalate, Escalate, Escalate — DO

NOT have a solution in mind — Playing God? — Some

Actual Play

xi: Design Notes – 147

Resources — Comment: Relationships vs. Traits vs. Things

— Adapting the Faith — Thanks

Rules Index – 153

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5

i: How To Play

D

ogs in the Vineyard is about God’s Watchdogs,

young men and women called to preserve the

Faithful in a hostile frontier territory. They

travel from town to isolated town, carrying mail, news,

and doctrine, healing the sick, supporting the weary,

and pronouncing judgment upon the wicked. One early

playtester said what she loves about the game: a town

welcomes you with celebration and honor, but what you’re

there to do is stir up its dirt and lay bare its sins.

The setting is a fantasy inspired by pre-statehood

Utah, the Deseret Territory, toward the middle of the 19th

century. Picture a landscape of high mountains, icy rivers

and cedar woods, falling away westward into scrublands,

deserts, buttes and swells. The summer skies are

heartbreaking blue, but the winters are long and killing.

Picture religious pioneers, fleeing persecution and

violence in the East. They’re trying to establish a society

based on faith and righteousness out in this frontier.

They’ve made the long trek westward but they’re still in

danger: their towns are small and isolated, vulnerable to

attack from without, sin and corruption within. Under

pressure, their pride becomes sin, their anger becomes

violence, their resentments become hate. Winter and the

demons howl...

You are God’s Watchdogs, holding the Faith together.

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i: How to Play

If You’ve Never

Roleplayed Before

Y

ou and your friends sit around a table or the living

room, talking. You’re collaborating on a story about

these characters, these Watchdogs of God, their adventures

and the challenges they face. Each of your friends acts

for one of the characters, making decisions and taking

action and speaking pretty much for that character alone.

Anybody can suggest anything to anybody, but when it

comes to that character, the buck stops with that player.

You’re the GM, though, and that means you don’t have

just one character: you have everything else. You play all

the supporting characters and antagonists, you have final

say over the imaginary sets where the action happens. You

set the pace, push the characters into conflict and crisis,

and describe the consequences of their decisions.

Sometimes the characters’ stories are funny, sometimes

exciting, sometimes frightening or intense — it’s all good.

Sometimes you’ll sit back from the table just shaking

your head at how cool. The characters can’t help but

be transformed by the challenges they face and their

changing relationships. Sometimes they even die. Your

game will have an overall story, made up of the interwoven

individual stories of your characters.

If it’s not as fun and engaging as the best TV shows, I

haven’t done my job.

What’s it like to play?

I

t’s episodic. A town per session, a town per two sessions

if it’s a big deal town. A good model here is a traveling

TV series, like The Fugitive or Farscape: each town presents

a situation for the characters to deal with and becomes

part of their ongoing story.

The game works best when the players all contribute,

all the time. You should all call out suggestions, kibitz,

laugh, digress, ooh and aah, say what’s cool and boo the

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i: How to Play

villains. I’m serious, just because your character’s out of

the scene doesn’t mean you have to sit quiet.

Along the same lines, if you’re the GM, feel free to tell

the players things their character’s can’t know. “You cut

out across the field toward the smoldering wagon. There’s

a gang of robbers hiding in the grass and behind a couple

of nearby trees. You haven’t seen them yet. What do you

do?”

Furthermore, the game calls for a pretty particular

division of power between players and GM, one you might

not be accustomed to. For instance, it’s never the GM’s job

to plan what’ll happen. The GM’s job is to create a town

at a moment of crisis (which I’ll tell you how to do in good

detail) and from then on, only respond. Play the NPCs up

to your elbows but then be willing to let them die.

I don’t provide too much setting; that’s by design. I’ll

give you some broad strokes, geography, an outline of the

Faith and its enemies, some color. But as you play, you’ll

fill in the rest, details of how the people live and what they

care about, their rituals, their demons and culture and

politics. Own the world! It’s yours.

It may seem odd at first, but the rules are there to

support you and make it easy. I can’t wait to show you the

dice in action! And the payoff is terrific — blood, passion,

judgment, fire. Real, gripping drama all the way around

the table.

Before You Play

Y

ou’ll need a GM. You’ll need some players — the

game works well with as few as two, and I wouldn’t

go over say four, plus you the GM. There are other games

that really rock with a big group, so if you’ve got a big

group, try one of them.

You’ll need to read the rules. Get a picture in your head

of how they play out.

You’ll need to get your fellow players to buy into the

game. If you tell them it’s a western and they look at

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i: How to Play

you like, a western? what’s that about? then this isn’t

their game. It’s okay, I’ve been there. There are lots of

alternatives that might be more to their taste; allow me to

recommend Trollbabe, Universalis, My Life with Master, or

Primetime Adventures as good possibilities.

You’ll need to create a town. Follow the rules in chapter

nine. Once the game gets going, creating towns is the

GM’s big responsibility, since the characters’ll visit a new

town practically every session. Fortunately it’s easy and

fun.

You’ll need a big ol’ pile of mixed dice. At least a dozen

d6s, better fifteen or twenty, plus six or eight each of d4s,

d8s and d10s. Pool everybody’s if you’ve got to and put

them in a bowl on the table.

Dice Conventions

1

d6 means one six-sided die. 3d8 means three eight-sided

dice. 4d6 1d10 means four six-sided dice and one ten-sided

die.

The game’s rules sometimes say to “add a die” or

“change the die size”:

— If you add a die to 1d6, you get 2d6.

— If you add a die to 3d8, you get 4d8.

— If you change the die size of 1d6 to d8s, you get 1d8. If

you change it to d10s, you get 1d10.

— If you change the die size of 3d8 to d10s, you get 3d10.

If you change it to d4s, you get 3d4.

They also sometimes say to add a particular die or dice:

— If you add 2d10 to 1d6, you get 1d6 2d10.

— If you add 1d8 to 3d8 1d10, you get 4d8 1d10.

Much as you’d expect.

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i: How to Play

At the First Session

A

t the first session, you need to:

— Get a group hit on the setting and setup

of the game. If you want you can just read out the

“Background” section in the character creation chapter.

— Create characters. Follow the procedure, out loud, at

the table. Don’t anybody come with a character already

made.

— Play through an initiatory conflict with each player.

This a) introduces the game’s dice; b) introduces the

players’ characters; and c) begins to establish you, the GM,

as the author of the adversity in the game. This is a real

big deal.

— Introduce the first town and launch into play proper.

From Then On

F

rom then on, you follow the characters’ stories where

they go.

In every town the characters visit, there’s something

wrong, and their job is to figure out what it is and put it

right. Sometimes what’s wrong is just a minor thing with

the potential to become much, much worse; sometimes it’s

worse already. Either way the characters will uproot it,

judge it, and enact upon it the will of God. God’s mercy,

God’s justice, God’s vengeance? That’s theirs to decide.

The game’s rules’ job is to help you, the GM, reveal

the pride, sin and corruption in the towns you create,

and provoke the characters’ judgment. They work a) by

helping you create congregations in turmoil, then b) by

seizing conflicts and relentlessly escalating them, then c)

by bringing the consequences back home to the players. I

can’t wait to show you them in action.

Over time, the players will reveal their characters in

depth. The characters might grow in faith, they might

fall by the side, they might struggle with doubts and

misgivings. You’ll find each one fascinating, maybe noble,

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pure, maybe good-intentioned but weak, maybe flawed,

maybe fatally flawed. Some will die. They’ll choose where

to stand and where to give way and what’s worth killing,

dying for.

You’ll get to see sides of your friends you haven’t

before. It’s wicked cool.

Ready?

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ii: A Land of Balm

and Virtue

I

will prepare for you a garden on the mountain, I will

prepare a land of balm and virtue.

Setting

I

’m just making stuff up! I have an image in my head, a

picture of what the characters look like, what the towns

and landscapes look like, and my thoughts in this chapter

follow from it.

As you play the game, you’ll form your own picture of

its world. Make up details to fit your picture, don’t worry

about sticking to mine.

It’s especially important to note that everyone playing

will form a slightly different picture, leading to slightly

different details. That’s fine! As GM, it falls to you to draw

the other players’ details into the confirmed, consensus

“reality” of the game. When a player asks you, “is there

a [whatever] here?” you should either say yes outright,

or turn the question back to the group: “I dunno, does it

make sense to you all that there’d be a [whatever] here?”

Similarly, if you think that a detail you’re introducing

might be at all surprising or controversial, take it to the

group: “I want there to be a [whatever] here. Does that

make sense to everybody?”

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

If you’ve GMed many other roleplaying games, you’re

probably accustomed to creating a consistent world by

adhering strictly to one person’s vision — either your

own as GM or else the game designer’s. I don’t intend

Dogs to play that way. When you play Dogs, you create a

consistent world by actively building one out of the bits and

pieces of each player’s own vision.

All of which to signify only: when I go on and on about

what shape the guns are, but don’t say a single word about

the horses, don’t take it as gospel. It’s just what I care

about.

The Landscape

T

he mountains are really tall. They peak above

the snowline. They have deep canyons, smashing

waterfalls, some rivers with ice in them year-round.

Winters even in the foothills are fierce and long.

There’s a broad fertile range — hundreds of miles

broad — on the west of the mountains, with lakes and

good land, rolling down westward and southward to a vast

scrub desert. The lower mountains and the fertile range

are the home of the Faith.

The capital of the Faith is called Bridal Falls City, for

the four beautiful waterfalls — the Four Brides — you can

see if you look up to the mountains. It’s still quite a small

city, pretty much dominated by its temples and temple

compounds.

The scrub desert is not sandy, dune-y or Sahara-like at

all. It’s all buttes, swells, canyons, and deep-cut valleys. It

used to be wetter and more fertile, probably, but it’s still

got lots of scrub oak, sagebrush, and those hardy little

cedars. In places wind and rain have carved the sandstone

until it looks like the ruins of some prehistorical kingdom

— mile after mile of eerie natural monuments.

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

The Faith

T

he whole name of the Faith is the Faith of All Things

in the King of Life, Reborn.

The whole name of the Dogs is the Order Set Apart to

the Preservation of Faith and the Faithful. Casually, the

King’s Dogs or Life’s Watchdogs. Dogs are always called

Brother or Sister by their first name: Brother Jeremiah,

Sister Patience.

The Faith is the only true religion in the world. All

other religions are a) actively demonic, cults created by

Faithful leaders fallen into sin; b) corrupt and decadent,

like the majority religions of the East; or c) idle nonsense,

like most of the religions in the wider world.

Towns

I

n a typical town, there might be:

— Mostly farmers;

— A blacksmith;

— A barrel-maker;

— A shoemaker;

— A miller;

— A carpenter;

— A midwife;

— A Faith meeting house;

— A one-room town hall;

— A one-room schoolhouse;

— A town square and market;

— A dry goods store.

In the larger towns, there might also be:

— A potter;

— A baker;

— A mason;

— A glassblower;

— A wheelwright;

— A harness maker;

— A doctor;

— A lawyer;

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

— A theater;

— A hotel;

— A courthouse;

— A schoolhouse or two;

— A hotel;

— Competing dry goods stores.

Food and Fashion

T

he staple foods are dairy and wheat.

Common foods include beef, chicken, pork, game

(elk, rabbits, fowl), fish, eggs, milk, cheese, fruit (apples,

plums, apricots, various berries), vegetables (corn, squash,

tomatoes, carrots, onions, peas, beans, beets, spinach),

herbs, honey.

The Faithful don’t drink coffee, black tea, wine or

liquor. They do drink herbal teas, various brewed soft

drinks like lemonade, spruce beer and root beer, and

— although it’s going out of fashion — mild barley beer.

Only old people use tobacco at all, and they get some grief

for it from their families and their Stewards.

Clothing’s made from cotton and wool, mostly. Finer

wools and linen are luxury materials. Silk’s used for

handkerchiefs and neckties, but more silk than one small

item in an outfit would be ostentatious or even decadent.

Dress is simple and modest. Men wear mostly black,

gray and dark brown, with generally white shirts. Women

dress more colorfully, but for a woman to show her ankle,

wrist or throat in company would be risqué.

Throughout the Faith, practicality trumps decorum,

though: a woman won’t show her wrist in company, but in

the kitchen? She rolls her sleeves.

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

Guns

I

mentioned the guns, right? We’re talking pre-Civil War

revolvers, which means they’re before the Colt Navy and

that distinctive six-gun look. They’re heavier-slung guns

with lower profiles and big, big bores.

To load them you slide out the rod or break them open

at the hinge, take out the cylinder, put the cartridges in the

front and caps in the back. You make your own cartridges:

a lead bullet and a measure of powder in a twist of

(nitrate-soaked) paper. They’re single-action, which means

that you have to pull back the hammer with your thumb;

pulling the trigger doesn’t advance the cylinder or cock the

hammer.

They’re slow, loud, smoky, and sometimes the cap

misfires or the cartridge jams the cylinder, but they’re

quite accurate and when they hit you they smash great big

holes into you. You’ve seen a Colt Dragoon? They’re scary

monsters.

The Mountain People

T

he land here wasn’t uninhabited when the Faith

arrived, not precisely, but its natives are nomads and

at the time they were elsewhere. While the pioneers were

establishing themselves at Bridal Falls and the lush valleys

around it, various accidents of history, the travels of the

elk herds, agreements between family groups, and perhaps

the will of the King of Life all kept the natives away. By

the time their paths brought them back, Bridal Falls City

and a dozen other towns already stood.

As the Faithful have expanded, it’s been easy for

them to push the natives — the Mountain People — out

in front of them. The Faithful have guns, work animals,

organization, and everywhere they go they make roads

and walls. The Mountain People are accustomed to

packing up what they own and moving on.

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

By now the Mountain People live only at the edges of

the Faith’s territory, in the scrub, the desert, and higher in

the mountains.

The Mountain People don’t have any social or political

unity. Each family group is autonomous, forming alliances

and agreements with other families at need or convenience.

Consequently the towns at the edges of the Faith have to

negotiate ongoing relations with nearby Mountain People

as best they can. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s not.

In some places it’s violent; in other places the Mountain

People are more likely to trade, or even beg, than to raid.

According to the doctrines of the Faith, the Mountain

People are a fallen remnant of an ancient Faithful

civilization. Out of respect for the antiquity of their

covenant, the Faithful don’t fight with them or murder

them without cause, and whenever a man or woman of the

Mountain People repents and comes to the Faith, it’s joy

and celebration. Beyond this, the Faith’s position is that

the Mountain People today are sinners and idolaters no

different from any other.

But folklore inevitably springs up. According to some,

the Mountain People are uniquely beloved of the King of

Life and destined for a glorious renaissance, despite their

present wickedness and idolatry. A few Faithful even say

that the Mountain People possess secret true doctrines!

These hold that one of the most important duties of the

Faith is to restore the Mountain People to their rightful

place in the Book of Life.

Others say instead that their fall from righteousness

makes them especially vulnerable to demonic influences,

easily possessed and naturally sorcerous, and that

they serve the demons by raiding and murdering the

Faithful. Extreme versions even make them out to be

wholly unredeemable. They’re dedicated absolutely to the

downfall of the Faith, just as the demons are absolute in

their rage against the King of Life.

You can guess which stories arise in towns where

relations with the Mountain people are hard, and which in

towns were relations are easy.

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

Regardless, sometimes individual Mountain People do

convert to the Faith. Sometimes orphans of the Mountain

People are adopted by a Faithful family and raised

righteously. Sometimes they even serve as Dogs!

The Territorial Authority

R

epresentatives of the Territorial Authority will

generally be either a claims officer or other

bureaucrat, or a circuit rider not unlike you Dogs.

Only larger towns will have any sort of Territorial law

enforcement — a sheriff — but he’s most likely to be

Faithful, elected to the job by his congregation. The

Territorial Authority’s real concern is that taxes are paid

and nobody interferes with the mail — it worries about

“keeping the peace” only insofar as lawlessness interferes

with taxes and mail.

It’s worth pointing out that the Dogs are authorized

by the Faith to do some things — like shoot sinners in the

street — that are against the law. Exercise your authority

cautiously.

Back East

B

ack East is all decadence, sin, cruelty and occultism. It

has huge cities, each with a population bigger than the

entire body of the Faith, and they’re foul, stinking places.

The few wealthy practice unspeakable vice and violence

and bribe the law to look away. The majority suffers

poverty, disease, filth, crime, slavery — and even still are

too blind to turn to the King of Life.

Small communities of the Faith remain Back East even

now, although fewer and fewer.

Occasionally, a Faithful family will send a child Back

East to college. Those are perilous years.

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ii: A Land of Balm and Virtue

Nonbelievers

L

ots of people other than the Faithful profess to serve

God. Some even call Him by His true title: the King

of Life. Obviously, they don’t truly serve Him — if they

did, they’d join the Faith! Instead:

— Atheists believe that there is no God, or that if there

is a God, He doesn’t participate in our lives. If they follow

a religion — and practically all of them do — they don’t

follow it with heart or faith.

— Dogmatists believe that what matters is obeying

scripture or dogma, not obeying God. They analyze their

faith for legalistic adherence to precedents or rules, and

thus don’t recognize the true promptings of their souls.

— Spiritualists believe that some spirit, or some class

of spirits, is God. They follow pagan superstitions or

ask the ghosts of the dead for guidance. The Mountain

People are Spiritualists, of course, worshipping their dead

ancestors and the spirits of the landscape. Back East,

more contemporary forms of Spiritualism are currently in

vogue.

There aren’t many nonbelievers out here among the

Faithful, but there are some. It might be, for instance,

that the claims officer is a stodgy old churchgoing Atheist,

while his faddish wife holds séances or reads Tarot.

21

21

iii: Creating

Characters

Y

ou are one of God’s Watchdogs, a young man or

woman called to service in the Faith. Your duty is

to travel between the Faith’s isolated congregations

— its branches — and hold the Faith together. You’ll face

danger, sin, betrayal; you’ll represent God’s mercy to the

sinner and God’s justice to the downtrodden; you’ll root

evil out and balance the line between divine and secular

law.

You have a badge of office: a long coat, colorful,

beautiful, hand-pieced and quilted by your friends and

family back home. To you, it recalls their love and your

duty; to others, it’s a powerful symbol of your authority.

Overview

S

tarting characters are all young men and women at the

end of their teens or the beginning of their twenties.

They’ve just spent two months or more in training,

education and ceremony to prepare them for their duties.

They know one another, although they didn’t necessarily

choose one another as companions. They are, to a one,

unmarried virgins. They’re allowed to travel mixed and

unchaperoned, because of the strength of their devotion

and duties.

For more, see the “Background” section, upcoming.

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iii: Creating Characters

Create your character the first time you meet to play.

Take a copy of the character sheet in the back of the book

and fill it out using the procedure in this chapter. Please

don’t make your character in advance! Come to the table

with nothing particular in mind, pass the book around,

kibitz, and see what comes out at the end.

Most of the process is informal: several decisions to

make and you can wing it. Poll your friends, call out

suggestions and just make stuff up. The last step, though,

introduces the game’s resolution rules. We’ll take each

player in turn and work through it in good order.

At the end of the process you’ll have a character

uniquely capable, strong and weak, primed to face and be

transformed by the challenges to come.

Procedure

First Step: Background

Choose one of the following:

Well-rounded: Choose this if you want your character

to be straightforward, balanced and effective. It’s a good

choice for men born in the Faith. On your character’s

sheet: 17d6 in Stat Dice; 1d4 4d6 2d8 in Trait Dice; 4d6 2d8

in Relationship Dice.

Strong History: Choose this if you want your

character to have had a good education, lots of experience,

or specialized training. On your character’s sheet: 13d6

in Stat Dice; 3d6 4d8 3d10 in Trait Dice; 1d4 3d6 2d8 in

Relationship Dice.

Complicated History: Choose this if you want your

character to have overcome a troubled, dangerous, or

challenging upbringing. It’s an especially good choice if

you want your character to be convert to the Faith. On

your character’s sheet: 15d6 in Stat Dice; 4d4 2d6 2d10 in

Trait Dice; 5d6 2d8 in Relationship Dice.

Strong Community: Choose this if you want your

character to be socially adept and from a strong, caring

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iii: Creating Characters

family. It’s a good choice for women born in the Faith. On

your character’s sheet: 13d6 in Stat Dice; 1d4 3d6 2d8 in

Trait Dice; 4d6 4d8 3d10 in Relationship Dice.

Complicated Community: Choose this if you want your

character to be socially vulnerable or from a broken, in-

crisis, or destructive family. On your character’s sheet:

15d6 in Stat Dice; 6d6 2d8 in Trait Dice; 4d4 2d6 2d8 2d10

in Relationship Dice.

Let’s say that you choose Well-rounded. In the

space for Stat Dice on your character’s sheet, write

17; in the space for Trait Dice, write 1d4 4d6 2d8; in

the space for Relationship Dice, write 4d6 2d8.

Second Step: Stats

Divvy your character’s Stat Dice between the four

Stats. Don’t roll the dice now! Your character’s Stats (and

everything else) are rated in dice: “my character has 4d6

in Will,” you might say. When any particular Stat comes

into play, that’s when you roll its dice.

The minimum for each Stat is 2d6; there’s no

maximum.

Let’s say you divvy your 17 Stat Dice like this:

Acuity 4d6, Body 6d6, Heart 5d6, Will 2d6.

Acuity: More dice in Acuity means a character who’s

perceptive, alert, educated, clever, savvy or well-read.

Body: More dice in Body means a character who’s big,

healthy, strong, wiry, muscular, tall, graceful, quick, or

steady.

Heart: More dice in Heart means a character who’s

compassionate, attractive, charming, gentle, courageous,

enduring, faithful, or likeable.

Will: More dice in Will means a character who’s

tenacious, aggressive, confident, unflinching, strong-

willed, or unshakable.

You won’t usually roll any Stat alone. Usually you roll

them in pairs:

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— If your character’s just talking, roll Acuity and

Heart;

— If your character’s doing something physical but not

fighting, roll Body and Heart;

— If your character’s fighting hand to hand, roll Body

and Will;

— If your character’s gun fighting, roll Acuity and Will.

Now you might already have a sense of who you want

your character to be when you start assigning the Stats

their dice, but you might not. If you don’t, that’s just fine.

Divvy the dice however seems good at the moment. Once

they’re assigned you’ll have a good basis for figuring out

who your character is.

Body and Heart are your character’s high Stats,

so that implies a physical, athletic character. A

rangy young man, let’s even say, good-looking,

strong, and well liked.

Third Step: Traits

Create some Traits for your character and divvy your

character’s Trait Dice between them.

Words vs. Dice: You can create your character’s Traits

as tidbits of history: “I used to break horses with my dad.”

You can phrase them as simple facts about your character:

“I’ve worked with horses and I know how they think.” You

can phrase them as skills: “horsemanship.” You can phrase

them as attitudes: “I’m very comfortable working with

horses.”

You can’t give your character more Traits than you’ve

got dice to assign, but you can double up (or even triple up)

dice on a single Trait if you want. The only limit is that

all the dice you assign to a given Trait have to be the same

size: “horsemanship 2d6” is fine, “horsemanship 1d4 1d6”

isn’t.

I prefer to write four or five Traits and then divvy my

dice between them, rather than assigning dice as I go, but

you might prefer the opposite. Either way, assign more

and bigger dice to the Traits that are most important to

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your idea of your character. You don’t have to assign

dice to match competence at all: you might take “I’m a

masterful rider, at one with my mount 1d4” and “I can’t

see well without my eyeglasses 2d10,” for instance. That’d

just mean that it’s more interesting to you that your

character’s nearsighted than that your character’s a good

rider.

If you can’t think of any Traits to start with, try

this trick: write “I’m a good shot” on your character’s

sheet. (“I’m a good shot” is always a safe take.) Now ask

yourself: where did my character learn to shoot? From

whom? What were the circumstances? Tease a second Trait

out of those circumstances, something like “I used to hunt

with my brother” or “I once killed a wolf that was killing

my family’s calves” or “I fought a year in the Territorial

Army.” For your character’s third Trait, choose something

unrelated but opposed, for balance: “I’m a good cook,

too,” maybe, or “I’m well-read,” or “I know the names of

the constellations.” Now you’re underway, and it should

be no problem to come up with a couple more Traits as you

need them.

d4 Traits: Because most of your character’s opponent’s

dice are going to be d6s and better, rolling d4s makes it

more likely that your character’ll suffer consequences in

conflicts. The most straightforward approach to d4 Traits

is to take them as disadvantages: “I’m scared of horses” or

“I get winded easily” or “my eyesight isn’t too good.”

But consider taking them as seeming strengths, too.

“I’m a good shot 2d4” means that yes, your character’s a

good shot, but when guns come out, your character’s life

gets even more complicated than usual.

I’m a Dog: Since your character’s a Dog, “I’m a Dog”

makes a very reasonable Trait. (If you prefer “I’m God’s

Watchdog” or “I serve in the Order Set Apart to the

Preservation of Faith and the Faithful,” that’s just fine.)

If you don’t give your character “I’m a Dog” as a Trait,

you have to give him or her a Relationship with the Dogs

in Step Four.

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So at the end of step three, here are your

character’s Traits: I’m a good shot 1d6. I’ve never

shot a gun at a living thing 1d4. I’m pretty handy

with a knife 1d8. I’m good looking 1d6. I’ve got a

very good, but completely untrained, singing voice

2d6. I’m a Dog 1d8.

Fourth Step: Relationships

Name a couple of people with whom your character has

a relationship, and assign some of your Relationship Dice

to them.

Don’t create very many, and leave most of your

character’s Relationship Dice unassigned! You can assign

them to the people your character meets after play begins,

so save a bunch of them for that.

If you like, you can give your character a Relationship

with the Dogs. If you didn’t give your character “I’m a

Dog” as a Trait, you have to.

Otherwise just name a person or two, say who they are

to your character, and give them dice. In play you can give

your character Relationships with institutions, demons,

places, and even sins, but for now stick with people.

Blood: Whenever your character meets a blood

relation, you can write that person as a Relationship on

your character’s sheet at 1d6 for free. You never need to

spend Relationship dice on your character’s kin, in other

words, unless you want the Relationship at some other dice

than 1d6.

Like Traits: Like with Traits, the number and size of

the dice you assign to your character’s Relationships don’t

have to reflect the closeness or significance of the person

to your character. You might write “my older brother,

whom I worship and with whom I’ve always been close

and caring 1d4” and “this old man I saw once across a

field in Bowers Draw 2d8.” Assign the dice based on how

interesting you think the relationship is.

Only assign a single size die, like Traits. 2d8 is fine, 1d4

1d6 isn’t.

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And also like with Traits, a d4 Relationship will

complicate your character’s life.

Let’s say: My brother Hiram 1d8. This old ranch

hand Ned 1d6. That leaves you 3d6 1d8 to write in

your character’s Available box.

Fifth Step: Belongings

Name some things your character owns, and give them

dice if they warrant ’em.

The Stewards at the Dogs’ Temple make certain that

every Dog owns a horse, a coat, a copy of the Book of

Life, a small jar of consecrated earth, and a gun. They

won’t insist that your character take the horse or the gun,

if for some reason he or she chooses not to.

Your character might also own other weapons, other

books, pen and stationary, some distinctive article of

clothing like a hat or a fine dress, keepsakes, or anything

else you think’s interesting — provided it fits the game’s

setting and a person could reasonably travel with it on

horseback.

Things: Write a belonging as you would a Trait or a

Relationship: “big knife 1d8” or “excellent horse 2d6.”

Only bother with possessions you actually care about; you

don’t have to write down the provisions you’re carrying or

anything like that.

Here’s how you give a thing dice:

— 1d6 if it’s normal.

— 2d6 if it’s excellent. It’s only excellent if people

meeting your character would notice and comment on it:

“ooh, that’s a mighty fine horse.”

— 1d8 if it’s big. Similarly: “holy smokes that’s a big

knife.”

— 2d8 if it’s excellent plus big.

— 1d4 if it’s crap. Crap plus big is still just 1d4.

This is true of everything in the world, horses, dogs,

knives, hats, boots, rakes, hoes, forks, spoons, houses,

fences, you name it. If it needs dice, it gets 1d6 if it’s

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normal, 1d4 if it’s crap, 2d8 if it’s excellent plus big, and so

on.

There’s just one exception: guns. All guns get an extra

1d4. Thus an excellent plus big gun gets 1d4+2d8, a normal

gun like anyone might carry gets 1d4+1d6, and a crap gun

gets 2d4.

You can give your character as many belongings as you

like, of whatever quality you like. The only limit is that

the rest of your group thinks it’s reasonable for him or her

to be carrying it around on horseback, in the wilds, in the

weather.

Your Coat: Also write what colors and patterns are

in your character’s coat. Most characters’ coats start out

worth 2d6 for excellence, but see the “Background” section

for more.

Your character has: a revolver 1d4+1d6, a rifle

1d4+1d6, a horse 1d6, a fearsome big razor-sharp

knife 2d8, and a coat 2d6: kind of a smoky gray,

white and blue, with bars of deeper blue across the

shoulders and a gold eight-point star in the center

back.

Sixth and Final Step:

Accomplishment?

Up until now, you’ve been building your character in

public at the table, but while you’ve (I hope) been open to

suggestions, nobody else has had any actual say what goes

onto your character’s sheet. This final step, that changes.

Say that I’m the GM for your game. I call on each of

you — the players — in turn:

1: Say something that you hope your character

accomplished during initiation. “I hope that my

character won distinction in the eyes of the teacher of

scripture,” you might say, or “I hope that my character

overcame his fear of blood,” “I hope that my character

exorcised a demon,” “I hope that my character learned

to curb her temper,” “I hope that my character solved a

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serious problem without resorting to violence,” or whatever

grabs you. That accomplishment is what’s at stake.

Don’t choose something that’ll break your character if

it goes the wrong way. “I hope that my character survived

initiation” or “I hope that my character didn’t get sent

home in disgrace” aren’t good.

2: Now we take sides. This calls for a little bit of

examination and judgment, so bear with me.

2a: If your accomplishment for your character is

straightforward, that’s cool and easy! You take your

character’s part and I take the part of your character’s

opposition. “I hope that my character won distinction in

the eyes of the teacher of scripture,” for instance: you take

your character’s side and I take the side of your rivals. “I

hope that my character exorcised a demon”: you take your

character’s side and I take the demon’s. Or “I hope that

my character solved a serious problem without resorting

to violence”: you take your character’s side and I take the

other side of the problem, whatever it is.

2b: If, on the other hand, your accomplishment

for your character is growth, learning, or a change

of habits, then we play a little trick: you take the part

of your character as he or she is, and I take the part of

whatever forces or pressures are on your character to

change. “I hope that my character overcame his fear of

blood,” for instance: you take the side of your character in

fear, and I take the side of your character’s teachers, who

see his weakness and want to help him overcome it. “I hope

that my character learned to curb her temper”: you take

the side of your character’s temper, her reluctance to be

changed, and I take the side of her teachers.

I’ll give examples of each kind in a bit.

3: We set a stage. Between us we figure out a pivotal

moment with regard to your accomplishment for your

character. We say who’s there and what’s going on. “I

hope that my character exorcised a demon” and we create

a possessed person, we put her in a locked room, we have

your character led there and put inside, with practiced

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exorcists outside the door in case things go badly. They

might.

4: We’ve launched a conflict! We play it out between

us using the game’s Conflict & Resolution rules. I’ll

explain them in full blood and bones detail in an upcoming

chapter. Don’t forget to roll Fallout!

You’ll roll dice based on your character’s Stats, Traits,

etc., same as you will in ongoing play.

I’ll roll 4d6+4d10. The GM always rolls 4d6+4d10 for

initiations.

5: Win or lose, you get a new d6 Trait. If you win

the conflict, the Trait should match your side; if you

lose, it should match my side. “I hope that my character

won distinction,” for instance: if you win, write “I won

distinction 1d6” on your character’s sheet. If I win, write

“I didn’t win distinction 1d6.” “I hope that my character

exorcised a demon”: if you win, write “I’ve exorcised a

demon 1d6,” but if I win, write “I’ve failed to exorcise a

demon 1d6.”

Remember how with “I hope that my character learned

to curb her temper,” you took the side of your character’s

temper and resistance to change? If you win that one,

write “I haven’t learned to curb my temper 1d6,” but if I

win, write “I’ve learned to curb my temper 1d6.”

Either way, you’re allowed some editorial spin on your

new Trait. “I hope that my character exorcised a demon,”

say. Depending how the conflict goes, you might write “I

handily exorcised a demon 1d6,” “I’ve exorcised one demon

and I never want to face another 1d6,” or (if it went the

other way) “a demon handed me my butt 1d6.”

Once you’ve gotten to really play, you’ll find that “I

learned to read 1d6” and “I haven’t learned to read 1d6”

are both valuable, interesting Traits. For now you’ll have to

take my word for it: losing your initiatory accomplishment

doesn’t disadvantage your character.

Example of accomplishment: I come around

to your turn and you say, “I hope my character

healed someone dying.” We take sides: I’m the

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dying person’s illness or injury, and you’re your

character. We set a stage: Your character’s just seen

a boy trampled by an ox and she’s the first person to

him. He’s thrashing and puking blood. Conflict: go!

You Raise: “I put my hands on him to calm him

down and examine him.” I Take the Blow to See:

“Cool. He’s still shuddering and burbling but you

can get his shirt open.” I Raise: “His ribs are all

smashed and floating, and now he’s drowning. He

stops breathing.” You Block or Dodge to See: “Oh

no he doesn’t. I mark his forehead with consecrated

earth to hold him in Life.” You Raise: “I whisper to

him, ‘what’s your name?’” I Block or Dodge to See:

“He can’t draw in enough breath. His mouth moves

but no voice.” I Raise: “His eyes go wide and his

body starts to relax.” You Take the Blow to See:

“He’s seeing Heaven.” You Raise: “‘Child, don’t go,

you have work yet here.’” I’m out of dice, I can’t

See your Raise, so: “He looks so calm, and then the

pain rushes back over him. He doubles over, trying

to scream. Other people are joining you, one’s a

doctor and he takes over. The kid will live.”

You roll Fallout for the Blow you Took, but let’s

just say that there’s no lasting consequence.

You add “I healed a boy trampled by an ox 1d6”

to your character’s sheet.

Example of growth: I come around to your

turn and you say, “I hope my character learned

not to swear so much.” We take sides: you’re your

character and his foul mouth, I’m his teachers

who want him to knock it off. We set a stage: They

call your character into council. Your character’s

most senior teacher, an imposing old man with an

enormous gray beard and sharp eyes, on one side of

the table, and your character on the other.

I’ll Raise: “‘Brother Ezra, your profane

and common language will not serve you in the

vineyard. You’ve got to curb your tongue.’” You

Block or Dodge to See: “I quote some scripture,

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something about ‘when you see filth, call it filth.’”

You Raise: “‘Is that all? Can I go?’” I Reverse the

Blow to See: “He says, ‘in fact, that is all. You’re

dismissed.’” I Raise: “Two nights later, two men

corner you behind the stable. They’re big guys,

one’s your teacher’s right-hand man. He has a bar

of soap.” You Block or Dodge to See: “Oh man. I

don’t let them back me against the wall.” You Raise:

“When one of them comes close, I lunge at him and

then make a break the other way.” I Block or Dodge

to See: “The other one grabs you as you try to shove

past.” I Raise: “He holds you and your teacher’s

man comes up with the soap.” You decide not to

Escalate to a fight and instead Give: “jeeze, they

wash my mouth out?” And I say, “oh yes indeed.”

You didn’t Take any Blows so you don’t roll

Fallout.

You add “I learned not to swear in public 1d6”

to your character’s sheet. And I’m like, “in public,”

very nice.

Background

H

ere’s what life is like from your character’s point of

view.

By the time you’re 12 or 13, the Steward of your Branch

is already considering whether you would make a good

Dog. Some kids are so obviously unsuited that the Steward

dismisses the idea at once, some kids show promise, some

kids have destiny on them like a light. There’s a spiritual-

intuitive component, divine guidance, if the Steward is

even remotely qualified — so the “obviously unsuited” kid

might be the kid who’s outwardly dedicated and actively

pursuing service in the Faith, and the kid with destiny

might be the town’s delinquent troublemaker. From 12 or 13

to 17-19, the Steward keeps his eye on you and guides you

as best he can, mindful always that he’s not responsible for

building you into a Dog-to-be. It’s your own duty.

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So at 18-20, the Steward formally interviews you and

then calls you to be a Dog. You say your goodbyes, pack

up a few things, and make the trek to the Dogs’ Temple to

be initiated. The whole process, starting at the interview

and ending at your first assignment, is an initiation. You

spend two months in the Dogs’ Temple at Bridal Falls City.

The schedule there for training initiates is continuous and

rolling. Usually there’ll be a dozen, maybe fifteen initiates,

but fewer in the winter and more in good years.

Your teachers at the Dogs’ Temple don’t necessarily

love you, they love the people you’re going to serve. Their

goal isn’t to make you a Dog; again, that’s your own duty.

Their goals are:

— To prove or cull you. They exhaust, humiliate, stress,

hurt, disappoint, tempt, scare, provoke, and overwhelm

you. By the end, you’ve proven yourself to them.

— To train you. They train you to ride, shoot, fight,

preach, persevere, ask questions, be patient, notice, be

discerning, and survive. By the end you’re a capable and

confident person, whatever you were before.

— To educate you. They teach you scripture, doctrine,

ceremony, theology, cosmology and demonology. By the

end you’ve got a solid grounding in those studies.

— To initiate you. They set you apart, invest you with

the authority of the Prophets and Ancients, consecrate you

to your service, receive your oaths, and sanctify you. By

the end you’ve proven yourself worthy and taken on your

duty.

— To inspire you. At some moment, some thing that

someone says will make your soul light up. Nobody can

predict when or what that thing will be, but without it, you

won’t make a Dog.

Your personal background, naturally, has a big effect

on how long they spend on each of those things. If you

can already ride, shoot, fight and survive, they notice right

away and move on. If you’re a scriptural scholar already,

they’ll put you to work teaching your fellows — maybe

even just teaching them to read.

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Meanwhile, while you’re there learning and proving

yourself, your family and your home town are making

your coat. It’s an honor and a point of pride to make

a coat. Primary responsibility is your mother’s, your

grandmothers’, your aunts’ and sisters’. If your coat is

poor, it reflects badly on them foremost. The boys and

men in your family are expected to help and participate,

but to do what they’re told. The women are expected

to have the skills necessary to oversee the project and

coordinate the efforts of everybody else.

There’s a traditional party where everybody in your

extended community who can and will comes to your

parents’ house and puts a stitch in your coat. At the end of

the party, all the men bless it (in whatever state of unfinish

it is at the moment) with consecrated earth and laying on

hands.

So toward the end of your two months’ training and

initiation, you receive the package from home containing

your coat and letters of blessing and well-wishing.

You’ll serve actively as a Dog for three or four years,

usually, sometimes less and sometimes more — sometimes

lots more — and your beautiful new coat won’t hold

up. It takes a fierce beating in the field. It becomes the

responsibility of the communities you serve to maintain

your coat, patching, piecing, repairing, even replacing it

as you need. Some Dogs come out of their service with

three or four coats, the earlier ones packed carefully away

to preserve them. Some come out with only their original

coat, and it’s torn and battered and ruined. In later life, as

you’re called to higher and higher sacred offices, you are

always allowed to replace whatever vestments accompany

your office with your old Dog’s coat, no matter how beat

up it is. And if you end up in the Dogs’ Temple training

and initiating new Dogs, your old coat is powerfully

significant.

(Picture one of the Dogs’ teachers. His coat’s so faded

and stretched across his shoulders that you can see his shirt

through it. It has an old stain and a crude patch under his

left arm. The boyfriend of the woman he loved stabbed

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him, so long ago, and he had to stitch his coat back up

himself. How high in the esteem of the new Dog initiates

he is! He regards them all with love, hope, and very mixed

feelings.)

All of the above: typical case.

S

ome Dogs’ years of service are in communities where

getting the people to stop murdering and screwing

each other is hard enough, let alone them making you a

beautiful piecework coat. These Dogs do the best they can.

I imagine one with only a remnant of her original coat,

reef-stitched to the back or around the arm of a normal

wool or canvas coat like anybody might wear.

Some new Dogs don’t have families who’ll make them

coats. They can’t go without, so sometimes their teachers

in the Dogs’ Temple work together to make one. Sometimes

such a coat will be made with just as much love as a

family-made one, but often it’ll be just thrown together.

There are also people in the Faith who make coats and send

them to the Dogs’ Temple for whoever needs them, with a

similar range of made-with-love to just-thrown-together.

Rarely, a new Dog will fall through the cracks and not get

a coat, and have to fend for her or himself, like a character

in an early playtest who stitched the rough silhouette of a

dog’s head onto the back of his plain old wool coat. Again

there’s a spiritual-intuitive component: somebody in the

Dogs’ Temple watched this character do it, and let him be.

It was as it should be, for reasons known to the King of

Life.

The Stewards of the Dogs assign you a route and

companions, based on needs and spiritual-intuition. (If

you find yourself at the end of your initiation unassigned

to companions and a route, you stay on, help out, and

eventually they’ll be inspired to assign you.) Over the

course of your service, you return periodically to the Dogs’

Temple, maybe twice annually. At those times, they might

reassign you.

Some Dogs serve faithfully until they’re released from

service. At the end of faithful service you can expect just

about any local-level office you ask for, if you’re a man.

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Non-Dog men can and do hold office in the Faith, but

Dogs are always considered preferentially. Only former

Dogs can initiate new Dogs, although non-Dogs can teach

them skills and theology, technically, if no former Dog

wants the job — which is not the case now. Every teacher

at the Dogs’ Temple today served as a Dog himself.

If you’re a woman, you can expect prestigious suitors

and far more say in your future than non-Dog women

have. No suitor can demand that you marry him, for

instance, where most women — even if nobody does

demand them, there’s always somebody who could. The

Prophets and Ancients of the Faith, the seventy old men,

when they want another wife, they always court and

propose to just-finished Dogs, for instance, and you can

turn them down if you want to. Which is a big deal,

actually.

When you do marry, you can expect your husband’s

respect, and if you marry an office-holder, you can expect

to participate in the administration of his office. You can

expect to be regarded as a spiritual advisor and, if your

inclinations run that way, a theologian in your own right.

If your husband treats you badly, you can expect the Faith

to take your complaints seriously.

Usually what happens is this: over the course of your

service, you’ll return periodically to visit the Dogs’

Temple. If the Dogs’ Stewards have decided that your

service is complete, they release you then. However, if

something urgent comes up in the field and you need

to be released, you can send to them, they release you

ceremonially by proxy when they receive your message,

they send back confirmation, and you’re supposed to wait

for the confirmation before you go forward no longer

a Dog. Unless you’ve done something dodgy already,

ending your service this way is as honorable and faithful as

waiting for them to release you. (The typical reason you’d

ask to be released is that you’ve met a person you’re going

to marry, and you don’t want to wait.)

Some Dogs leave service unfaithfully, though. You

aren’t punished at all; everybody knows that the job’s

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hard-to-impossible and nobody expects you to do better

than your best. If you need it, you are guaranteed a place

in the Dogs’ Temple, working in the kitchens, the stables,

sweeping up, doing household chores, whatever, until you

find your way to better. Often if you desert your calling,

though, you don’t choose to go back like that.

Some Dogs just stay Dogs. The Stewards of the Dogs

don’t release them — again according to their spiritual

intuition — and they don’t ask to be released. Few Dogs

in the field are in their thirties, but I suppose one or two

might be.

Converts

A

nd here’s how your life might be different if you’re a

convert to the Faith.

Most converts come from Back East; practically

everyone born out here in the mountains is raised Faithful.

Being from Back East means that you’ve left friends and

family behind and made the trek westward to join the

body of the Faith. One person in ten dies on that trek.

How old were you when you converted to the Faith?

The oldest Dogs in the field are men and women who

converted as adults.

Or it might be that you’re a Mountain Person. If you’ve

been raised in the Faith, by convert parents or by an

adoptive Faithful family, your life is only a little different

from your fellow Dogs’. The Mountain People don’t look

like the Faithful: they’re leaner built, they have different

eyes, different faces, different hair, so you never quite fit

in. You’ve been subject to prejudice, both the outrightly

hostile kind — you’re naturally wicked, superstitious,

lazy, dirty, mean — and a subtler kind. Some see you as

uniquely noble, admiring the antiquity of your Faithful

heritage, holding you to a high standard and expecting

you to be at once insightful, powerful and humble, with

little compassion for you if you fail. If you’ve been adopted

by Faithful parents, it’s very likely that they see you this

way themselves.

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If you’ve converted more recently, you have to deal

with not only those twin prejudices, but also an upbringing

in a culture at odds with your new one. You used to take

comfort from and find meaning in your people’s worship

— your ancestors looked after you, the spirits led and

provided for you. How do you now understand your native

religion? It might even be that the little thoughtless habits

of your childhood, themselves innocent, bring evil to your

mind and to the minds of the people around you. What

balance can you find — if any at all — between serving

the King of Life and remembering your own kind?

Going Forward

New Relationships

W

henever you want, you can write someone’s name

on your character’s sheet and assign one or a couple

of your available Relationship dice. It doesn’t have to be

someone your character knows well or feels strongly about;

it should be someone that you yourself are interested in.

Your relationship dice don’t describe your character’s

family or community, before initiation. Instead, they

reflect what your character learned from it.

If you grew up in a complicated family, you’re going to

know how to create complicated new relationships. If you

grew up in a strong family, you’re going to know how to

create strong new relationships.

In addition to people, your character can have

Relationships with institutions, like the Dogs or the

Faith; places, like a particular branch, mountain, grove

or river; sins, whether that means habitually committing

them, struggling with them, or being particularly resolute

against them; and demons.

Generally speaking, you get to roll the dice for your

character’s Relationships when the person or thing is a)

your character’s opponent in a conflict, or b) what’s at

stake in a conflict. See the Conflict & Resolution chapter

for more.

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Ceremony

I’ll say more about this in the Conflict & Resolution

chapter too, but meanwhile you should have an idea what

the ceremonies of the Faith look like. Your character’s

initiation included investing him or her with the authority

to perform all of these:

— Anointing with Sacred Earth. Sacred Earth

is consecrated river clay. All Dogs carry a jar of it.

You anoint someone with it by marking it on his or her

forehead.

— Calling by Name. When you call someone by their

full, whole name, with authority, their soul can’t ignore

you.

— Invoking the Ancients. This means simply declaring

your authority as a Dog and an office holder of the Faith.

— Laying on Hands. Generally you put both your hands

on the top of someone’s head, but any contact between the

palm of your hand and someone else’s skin will do.

— Making the Sign of the Tree. The Faith’s most

sacred symbol is a stylized tree, the Tree of Life. You

make the Sign of the Tree by holding your right hand up

at shoulder level, palm forward, with your fingers wide

spread.

— Reciting the Book of Life. The Book of Life is the

Faith’s scripture.

— Singing Praise. Lots of the Faith’s rituals incorporate

sung hymns.

— Three In Authority. Whenever possible, have at

least two other Dogs or office holders of the Faith perform

ceremony with you. (Dogs are generally sent out in groups

of three or four, although two is acceptable because most

branches have a Steward who can make the third.)

When you perform a ritual, incorporate whichever

elements of ceremony suit your needs. Here are a few of

the Faith’s most common rituals:

— To Name a Baby: Hold the baby on your left arm.

Mark the baby’s forehead with Sacred Earth. Say

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iii: Creating Characters

something like, “by the authority given me by the Ancient

Prophets of Life, I name you...” and say the baby’s name.

If you’re moved to do so, you can give the baby some

specific blessing or make some prophecy about the baby’s

life.

— To Solemnize a Marriage: Have the couple hold

hands before you. Mark both of their foreheads with

Sacred Earth. Call upon the authority of the Ancients and

recite one of the many relevant passages from the Book of

Life, declaring them wed. Call the wife by her new name.

— To Heal a Sick Person: Lay hands on the sick person

and anoint him with Sacred Earth. Calling him by name,

command him to health. If he’s able, have him sing one of

the healing hymns with you.

— To Drive Demons out of a House: Make the sign

of the tree. Declare the authority you have from the

Ancients and command the demons to depart. Bolster your

commands — and make the place less hospitable to them

— by reciting scripture and singing hymns. If you know

the demons’ names, use them!

— To Dedicate a Person to Office: Lay hands on the

person. Call him by name. Give him his new office, call

upon the Ancients of the Faith to give him their authority,

and charge him to serve faithfully until such time as he is

released from duty.

— To Sanctify a Corpse: Mark the corpse’s forehead

with Sacred Earth, reciting the Passages for the Dead

from the Book of Life. If you know the person’s name, use

it. According to the folk beliefs of the Faithful, after you’ve

died, each minute that passes before someone sanctifies

your corpse presents a temptation to remain on earth

as a ghost, which is a sin and will count against you at

Judgment. The Faith has no such official doctrine.

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A Dog’s duties

As your character travels from branch to branch, here

are some things he or she will routinely be called upon to

do:

— Carry mail and news.

— Officiate or participate in holy ceremonies: naming

babies, dedicating children to the Faith, solemnizing

weddings, blessing the sick, anointing and sanctifying

the dead. Most branches will have a Steward who can

perform these, but the Faithful will be honored by your

participation.

— Deliver doctrine and new interpretation as needed to

the branch’s Steward and other office holders, and consult

with them about the challenges the branch faces.

— Preach.

— Participate in, but hold yourself apart from, the

branch’s social functions and celebrations.

— Help the branch out with physical work, like bringing

in a harvest or digging out from a blizzard, only when the

need is immediate and acute.

In a perfect world, your character would mostly shake

hands and kiss babies. Too bad it’s not a perfect world,

huh?

When things go wrong in a branch, it looks like this:

— Someone’s proud.

— Pride, enacted, creates injustice.

— Injustice leads to sin. Either the proud person

becomes bold, or the victims of the injustice become

resentful; either way, someone breaks the rules.

— Sin in a branch lets the demons attack it. (A sin-free

branch is protected from the demons by the power of the

Faith.) The demons aren’t themselves corporeal, so they

have to use some intermediary to attack: raids by outlaws

or Territorial Authority soldiers, disease, disaster, failing

crops, drought, storms — whatever serves to threaten the

branch.

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— Sin and demonic attacks, over time, create false

doctrine. The habitual sinner might fall into heresy to

justify her sin, or the victim of demonic attacks might

blame the Faith or the King of Life for his misfortune.

— False doctrine, enacted, is corrupt worship.

Inappropriate ceremonies, incorrect observances, subtle

changes to the order of things — or even blatant and

outright demonism! (I’ll point out also that when corrupt

worship begins in a branch, the demons might immediately

stop attacking it.)

— If a corrupt form of worship ever has three or more

followers, it becomes a false priesthood.

— A false priesthood commands the attention and

obedience of the demons. That’s called sorcery, when you

tell the demons what to do and they do it.

— Sorcery will eventually lead to hate and premeditated

murder. That’s the demons’ ultimate goal.

So when you arrive in a branch, it’ll be (rarely) just

fine, or else it’ll fall somewhere in this process. Maybe

there’s someone whose pride is causing some injustice, and

that’s it — nobody’s sinned yet, and your character can

deal with it just by taking the guy down a peg or two.

Maybe that guy’s been sinning, having an affair with his

cousin’s daughter say, and it’s been a terrible year because

the crops have blight — your character will have to find

and resolve that hidden sin. Maybe all that’s past and the

niece has taken it into her head that women can have more

husbands than one, just as that guy was her own secret

husband, and she’s gradually winning the support of her

sisters in the branch — your character will not only have

to deal with her somehow, but also find the sin behind her

heresy. Maybe, worse, she’s already won the support of

her sisters, and now there are several women in the branch

who have second, secret husbands, plus demons at their

call! Leave that branch alone and soon they’ll be killing

each other and it’ll be on your character’s head.

Knowing just this makes your character a theologian!

Most Faithful will know that people shouldn’t sin, because

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when people sin they lose the blessings of the Faith, but

honestly they’ll think more and harder about whether it’ll

be a bad winter and they hope their horse isn’t coming

down sick and isn’t it getting to be time to bring the apple

harvest in? Keeping the Faith in order is your job, Dog.

A Dog’s authority

When your character is acting to preserve the faith of

a branch, he or she can take whatever steps are necessary,

and no one can justly complain. Your character acts on

behalf of the King of Life; if anyone has a problem, they

can take it up with Him.

Check this out:

Brother Zachary is the worst thing in Steward

Joseph’s world. It’s not just that he’s a sinner, it’s that he’s

unteachable, unreformable. Too mean and too proud.

Brother Zachary is single-handedly destroying Steward

Joseph’s branch. But when Steward Joseph goes to the

King of Life for guidance, it’s all: see to his needs, call him

to repentance, cultivate him, serve him, help him, show

him compassion. That, after all, is Steward Joseph’s job:

look after each person in his care. The King of Life tells

Steward Joseph what’s best for Brother Zachary. Steward

Joseph has invested more time and care and worry in

Brother Zachary than in any other single thing in his life.

Your character comes to town. The branch has a septic

wound. A thousand resentments, sins waiting to burst

free. If you leave it as it is it’ll tear itself to pieces. Steward

Joseph’s doing his very best by everyone, but it’s stone

clear: Brother Zachary will become too much for him to

carry. Steward Joseph will do something terrible, with lots

of people caught up in it, and it’ll be bloodshed, sorcery,

and damnation.

Your character doesn’t care what’s best for Brother

Zachary, he cares what’s best for the branch. You have him

drag Brother Zachary out of his house and shoot him in

the street.

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Steward Joseph comes in a rage. “All my work, all my

time, all my investment in Brother Zachary’s salvation!

And for what, you kill him!”

“Your job is to heal the wound,” your character says.

“My job is to save the body.”

Your character’s conscience and

your own

Does this mean that your character can’t sin?

No. But it does mean that no one’s in a position to

judge your character’s actions but you yourself. Your

character might be a remorseless monster or a destroying

angel — I the author of the game can’t tell the difference,

your GM and your fellow players can’t tell the difference,

only you can.

As play progresses, you’ll have the opportunity

to consider your character’s actions and change your

character’s Stats, Traits and Relationships to reflect

them. That might mean that you give your character

Relationships with sins and demons, problematize his or

her Traits, and burn out his or her Relationships with

the Faithful — or it might mean no such thing. Sin,

arrogance, hate, bloodlust; remorse, guilt, contrition;

inspiration, redemption, grace: they’re in how you have

your character act, not (just, or necessarily) in what’s on

your character’s sheet. Those moments, in play, are what

matters.

Your character’s conscience is in your hands.

Leaving Play

S

tories end. Lives end too.

At any moment in the game, you can choose to have

your character leave play. “That’s it,” you might say. “I’m

not gonna put up with this any more. I retire to be a dirt

farmer.” Being a Dog isn’t easy and you don’t really know

up front when your character will quit. Or sometimes,

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a character’s story is finished and it’s time for you, the

author, to move on to a new one.

Also, occasionally, your character will get killed. The

conflict resolution rules will keep it from being pointless

or arbitrary: it’ll happen only when you’ve chosen to stake

your character’s life on something.

Either way, take some time to wrap up — work with

your GM and your fellow players to give your exiting

character an epilogue or a eulogy. The moments leading

up to the end will probably be some of the highlights of the

game, so don’t rush over them or hurry past.

But when it’s all said and all done, you’ve collectively

given your character’s story the recognition it deserves,

and you’re satisfied, you can stay in the game! Just go

ahead and make a new character:

— Grab a blank sheet for your new character.

— However many dice in Stats your old character had,

divvy that many dice among your new character’s Stats,

plus 1d6 for your trouble. You definitely do not have to give

your new character the same number of dice in any given

Stat as your old character had.

— However many dice in Traits your old character had,

give your new character that many dice in Traits, plus 1d6

for your trouble. Make up all new Traits and assign the

dice to them however seems good.

— However many dice in Relationships, assigned or

available, your old character had, give your new character

that many dice for Relationships. Don’t assign them all

now! Just like when you made your old character, name a

couple of people and then write the rest of the dice in the

“available” slot on your character’s sheet.

— If you like, you can shuffle dice one-to-one between

your pool for Traits and your pool for Relationships. You

might have emphasized Traits for your old character, for

instance, but you want to emphasize Relationships for your

new character. That’s fine, just shift some Trait dice over.

— It’s up to you whether your new character’s a new

Dog or an experienced one. If new, say something you

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hope your character accomplished during initiation, same

as for your old character. If experienced, say something

you hope your character accomplished during his or her

service so far. Either way, set a stage, roll dice, resolve

the conflict, and give your character the outcome as a 1d6

Trait.

— Equip your character as appropriate. Don’t forget his

or her coat.

Then work with your GM and fellow players to get your

new character introduced. You might have to play a piece

of the game with no character, sitting at the table and

contributing as usual but not so directly represented in

the game, but I hope you all figure out a way to minimize

that. If nothing else, it’s within bounds for your character

to just show up: “The Stewards at Dogs’ Temple sent

me here, I’ve ridden straight through the night, and can

somebody tell me why?”

GMing Character Creation

W

hile your fellow players are creating their characters,

you need to stay on top of four things.

1. Are we developing characters who’re competent to

serve? If we aren’t, you need to redirect us. Try asking

questions like, “and how would this person make it through

initiation?” and pointing out the Dog’s responsibilities

and what initiation entails. I’ve noticed that some players’

impulse is to create clowns. Clowns are fine, but make sure

there’s some hardness, some will, underneath.

2. If we lose our characters’ initiatory conflicts, will

we be out of the game? “I hope my character makes it

through initiation” isn’t an acceptable conflict, whatever

specific form it takes. We already know that all our

characters are going to be Dogs, that’s the game.

Instead, suggest a conflict that cements a Trait the

character already has. Like if my character has “I’m good

with horses,” suggest that I try to accomplish something

related: teaching a new initiate to ride well, winning

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the admiration of the hostlers, or arranging for my

companions to all have excellent mounts when we leave.

Remember: as GM, you always roll 4d6+4d10 for

initiatory conflicts.

3. How much supernatural effectiveness are we

building into our characters? Don’t judge whether it’s too

much or too little — you’re to keep an open mind and

follow our lead. The supernatural in the game will be

somewhere on a continuum. At this end, barely any, where

the demons are really just bad luck and the pressures a

town has to struggle with to survive, and the ceremonies

of the Faith only reassure the Faithful and remind them of

their commitments to one another. At the other end, lots

and lots, with the Dogs as powerful exorcist-gunslingers

battling demons, sorcerers and ghosts, where calling a

person by name can restore him to life and bullets slide

off a Dog’s coat, striking sparks. Look at the Traits we

give our characters, and you’ll begin to see where on that

continuum this particular game will fall.

...But “follow our lead” doesn’t mean keep your mouth

shut. If one of us is stuck for Traits, feel free to suggest

“I’ve exorcised a demon,” “the King of Life speaks to me

in dreams,” or “I’m a healer.” When it comes to initiatory

conflicts, be sure to suggest some supernatural ones, along

the same lines. If we don’t respond, then follow.

4. What’s up, I mean really what’s up, with our

characters? Does mine have some sort of love-hate thing

going on with his family? Does Em’s have a mean streak?

Does J.’s have secret doubts?

Don’t act on them yet — in fact, it’s way too early to

draw any conclusions a’tall — but file them away. Now’s

the time to start going “mmhmm” like good Dr. Freud.

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Recap

Creating your Character

Your character’s initiation took two months at the

Dogs’ Temple in Bridal Falls City. The teachers there

proved, trained, educated, initiated, and inspired him or

her. The Dogs’ Stewards then assigned your character to

companions and a route.

It’s your responsibility to create a character suited to

service and within the genre of the game.

1. Choose one:

— Well-rounded: 17d6 for Stats, 1d4 4d6 2d8 for Traits,

4d6 2d8 for Relationships.

— Strong History: 13d6 for Stats, 3d6 4d8 3d10 for

Traits, 1d4 3d6 2d8 for Relationships.

— Complicated History: 15d6 for Stats, 4d4 2d6 2d10 for

Traits, 5d6 2d8 for Relationships.

— Strong Community: 13d6 for Stats, 1d4 3d6 2d8 for

Traits, 4d6 4d8 3d10 for Relationships.

— Complicated Community: 15d6 for Stats, 6d6 2d8 for

Traits, 4d4 2d6 2d8 2d10 for Relationships.

2. Divvy your character’s Stat dice between Acuity,

Body, Heart and Will. Give every Stat at least 2 dice.

3. Create some Traits and assign your character’s Trait

dice to them.

4. Create a couple of Relationships and assign some

of your character’s Relationship dice to them. The rest of

your character’s Relationship dice are Available.

5. Write down your character’s Belongings and assign

them their dice. Remember to describe your character’s

coat.

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— It’s normal: 1d6.

— It’s excellent: 2d6.

— It’s big: 1d8.

— It’s big and excellent: 2d8.

— It’s crap: 1d4.

— All guns get an additional 1d4.

6. When your GM comes around to you, say something

that you hope your character accomplished during

initiation. Make it what’s at stake in a conflict, set a stage,

roll dice, See and Raise, and at the end give your character

the outcome as a new Trait at 1d6.

GMing Character Creation

— Are the characters suitable Dogs?

— Are their initiation conflicts’ stakes appropriate?

— How supernaturally effective are they?

— What are their interesting underlying issues?

For initiation conflicts, you roll 4d6+4d10.

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iv: Conflict &

Resolution

T

he shopkeeper from Back East? His wife isn’t really

his wife. He’s the procurer and she’s the available

woman. Their marriage is a front.

Your brother’s son, your nephew, is fourteen years old.

He’s been stealing money from his father, your brother,

and taking it to visit this woman.

Your brother is in a bitter rage, humiliated by his son’s

thievery and grieving his son’s lost innocence.

He’s going to shoot her.

What do you do?

Overview

W

e’ll use dice to resolve the conflicts the characters

get into. The dice determine not just how the

conflict turns out at the end — who wins? — but also

how the conflict goes throughout. They provide reversals,

escalation, daring advances and desperate retreats, broken

bones, cutting betrayals, and all the other juicy goodness a

conflict should have.

All the players who have an interest in a particular

conflict roll their own dice. Your dice represent your

bargaining position in the conflict: the more dice you

roll, the more say you have in how the conflict goes. This

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iv: Conflict & Resolution

is because your dice give your characters’ actions and

reactions weight, consequence. When you have a character

throw a punch, you use your dice to back it up. When

your character takes a punch, your dice determine whether

he shrugs it off or down he goes.

To launch a conflict, we begin by establishing what’s

at stake, setting the stage, and figuring out who’s

participating. Every participating player takes up dice

to match the circumstances and throws them down all at

once. From there on, the conflict plays out kind of like

the betting in poker. One player “raises” by having a

character act and putting forward two dice to back it up,

and all of the other players whose characters are affected

by the act have to put forward dice of their own to “see.”

When you use dice to Raise and See they’re gone: put

them back in the bowl and don’t use them again in this

conflict.

Depending on how effectively you See, you might have

to take Fallout Dice: dice representing blows your character

took — hard words or punches or knives in the ribs or

even bullets — and when the conflict’s over you’ll roll

them to see how badly your character is hurt.

If you’re losing, you can get more dice by escalating the

conflict. Someone’s getting the better of your character in

an argument? Pull a gun. That’ll shut ’em up.

Anyone who has too few dice to See when they have

to — and can’t or won’t escalate — is out of the conflict.

Whoever’s left at the end gets to decide the fate of what’s

at stake. Everybody deals with their Fallout Dice, and then

the conflict’s done!

The Simple Case

1.

Establish what’s at stake. Any player can make

suggestions, and everybody should feel free to toss it

around until you arrive at the right thing.

What’s at stake is: does your character’s brother

shoot the woman?

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iv: Conflict & Resolution

2. Set the stage. Say where the conflict’s taking place,

what’s around, maybe mention where the conflict might

range or what features of the environment might come into

play. Also have someone say how the conflict will start.

Your character meets his brother on the twin-

rut road between his farm and town. The nearest

building is his tool shed, a hundred feet behind;

otherwise it’s all around swaying gold wheat. The

sky is insane summer blue and it’s before noon.

Your character’s brother has his old smoothbore

carbine and his jaw is clenched. You’ll start with

just talking, you say.

3. Who’s participating?

Just me and you, for now. You’re taking your

own character’s side, of course, and I’m taking

your character’s brother’s.

4. Take up dice. You’ll take dice from your character’s

sheet, as appropriate to this conflict as it opens. I’ll take

dice from your character’s brother’s sheet. Here’s how it

works:

Stats: Which Stats you roll depends on what arena

the conflict is currently playing out in. Just talking: roll

Acuity + Heart. Physical, but not fighting: roll Body +

Heart. Fighting hand-to-hand: roll Body + Will. Fighting

with guns: roll Acuity + Will.

Since we start out with our characters just

talking, you roll d6s equal to your character’s

Acuity plus d6s equal to your character’s Heart:

let’s say 6d6 together. I roll d6s equal to your

character’s brother’s Acuity plus his Heart: let’s

say 7d6.

Relationships: You roll the dice listed for your

character’s Relationships under pretty limited

circumstances: when your Relation is your character’s

opponent or when your Relation is what’s at stake.

Since your character’s brother is your opponent,

you get whatever dice you have listed for him

on your character’s sheet. Recall that for blood

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relations, if you don’t specify any dice you get a d6.

Let’s say that for this particular relationship you

have 1d8 listed and I have nothing. You roll your

1d8 and I roll the default 1d6.

Traits: You roll the dice listed for your character’s

Traits when you bring them into play as part of a Raise or

See. You roll a Trait’s dice only once per conflict, the first

time you bring the Trait into play.

Things: You roll the dice listed for your character’s

Belongings, as for Traits, when you bring them into play in

a See or a Raise. You only get each thing’s dice only once

in a conflict. If you bring something into play in a See or

a Raise and it’s not on your character sheet, you get its

normal dice if you’re using it as it oughta be used, and a

d6 or a d4 otherwise.

Since neither of us has Raised or Seen yet,

neither of us get dice from our characters’ Traits or

Belongings.

All told, you take up 6d6 plus 1d8, and I take up

8d6.

5. We roll all our dice. Leave ’em out on the table where

everybody can see. You can push them around into order if

you want.

You roll: 1 2 2 3 4 4 7. I roll: 1 1 1 3 4 5 6 6.

6. Now we take turns Raising and Seeing. Here are the

ground rules:

Your Best Roll is the sum of your two highest dice.

Your Best Roll is 11, mine is 12.

To Raise, say what your character does and put

forward two of your dice.

You Raise always with two dice. They can be any two,

including or excluding your best roll. When you Raise,

have your character do something that his opponent can’t

ignore. We’ll call it an “attack” for now, but of course it

doesn’t have to be violent.

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(You can Raise with one die under two particular

circumstances: when you’ve Helped someone else, and

when it’s your Raise and you have only one die left.)

Your Raise is both what your character does and the

dice you’re using to back it up. Don’t put dice forward to

Raise without describing your character’s action.

To See, say how your character responds and put

forward one or more of your dice.

You See by putting forward dice to equal or exceed the

standing Raise. You See with as many dice as you need.

Your See is both your character’s response and the

dice you’re using to get it. Don’t put dice forward to See

without describing how your character deals with the

Raise:

If you See with one die, that’s Reversing The Blow.

Say how your character turns the attack back onto the

attacker, and don’t discard the die you used to See, hold

on to it for a minute. When it’s your turn to Raise, use

that die as one of your two dice to Raise. It counts twice,

in other words: you See with it and then immediately use it

again to Raise before you discard it.

If you See with two dice, that’s a Block Or Dodge. Say

how your character defends against the attack.

If you See with three or more dice, that’s Taking The

Blow. Say how the attack lands and how your character

reacts.

When you Take The Blow, you always get Fallout

Dice. Take a number of dice equal to the number you

used to See — so if you Saw with three, take three, if you

Saw with four take four, and so on up — and set them

aside until the conflict ends. The size of the Fallout Dice

you take depends on the nature of the blow: d4s if it’s not

physical, d6s if it’s physical but not a hit with a weapon,

d8s if it’s a hit with a weapon but not a bullet, and d10s if

it’s a bullet.

And finally, if you don’t want to play through to the

end of a conflict, you can Give instead. You lose the stakes,

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but gain an advantage in any follow-up conflict. Under

some circumstances you might rather that than staying in.

Here’s the procedure:

a. Whichever character’s opening the conflict, that

player makes the first Raise. Say what your character does

and put forward two of your dice to back it up.

You’re opening the conflict, so you start: “Hey,

Zeke, you don’t just go shoot people,” you have

your character say. “Let’s talk about this.” You

Raise with a 4 and a 3, for 7.

In cases where it’s not clear who should open the

conflict, have it be the player with the highest best roll.

b. Everybody whose character is affected by your Raise

has to See. Remember that you Raise with two dice and

See with as many as it takes.

I put forward my own 4 and 3 to See. “Get out

of my way, boy,” I have my character say.

c. Now whoever’s next gets to Raise. In this case, me.

“In fact, if you had any conscience of your

own, you’d be with me.” That’s my Raise, so I put

forward a 5 and a 6, for 11.

d. Again, everybody whose character is affected by

my Raise has to See. Notice that with only two of us, we

simply trade back and forth: you Raise, I See then Raise,

you See then Raise, I See then Raise ... and on until one

of us is out of dice and the conflict ends.

You have my 11 to See, so you slide forward

your 7 and your second 4. “Don’t try to tell me

about my conscience,” you have your character say;

that’s your See. Here’s your Raise: “you go home

and see to your son.” Raising with your best dice

left: two 2s.

I see with my last 6, Reversing The Blow. “Ha!

I remember how he used to look up to you! Maybe

if you’d been in his life he wouldn’t have gone this

way.” Because I Reversed The Blow, I get to keep

the 6 for my Raise. I add one of my 1s to it.

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So now you only have the one 1 left. You can’t

See my Raise, so I win the stakes. Your character

stands there with the wind out of his sails and I

have my character push past and on into town,

where he murders the shopkeeper’s supposed wife.

Escalating

A

nd that’s pretty grim, no? Let’s look at something you

can do about it.

When you Escalate, you get to roll Stat dice for the

new arena. Let’s take it from my Reversal:

“...Maybe if you’d been in his life he wouldn’t

have gone this way.” I put forward my 1 to go with

my 6, so you have a 7 to See.

“Forget this,” you say. “I punch you.”

Now your character isn’t just talking any more! He’s

fighting, and that means you roll Body plus Will. Take

up those new dice, throw ’em down, and add them to

whatever’s still left on your side.

Let’s say that your character’s Body plus Will is

7d6. You roll: 1 3 4 5 5 5 6. Also, let’s say that your

character has “Fist fighting 1d8” as a Trait, so you

roll that d8 as soon as you say “I punch you.” You

roll a 4 on the d8 and you still have that 1 left from

before too.

So you See my outstanding 7 with your 4 and

your 3, and put forward two of your 5s to Raise.

Now I don’t have the dice to See your Raise. If I don’t

want to Give, I have to Escalate to match. Will I? Yes!

Let’s say that my character’s Body plus Will is

6d6. I roll crap: 1 1 2 2 2 5. I have no immediately

relevant Trait and my two leftover 1s aren’t much

comfort.

I have to See your 10. I See with my 5, two 2s

and a 1. Because I’m Seeing with more than two

dice, I’m Taking The Blow: “I’m surprised and

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you catch me right in the jaw,” I say. I take four

Fallout Dice, the number of dice I used to See, and

since I took a punch they’re d6s. I set 4d6 aside for

after the conflict.

Now all I have left to Raise with is a 2 and

some 1s, and you have a 6, a 5, a 4 and some

stuff. If I stay in the fight, you’ll beat the crap out

of me. Instead I Give. Now you get the resolution

of what’s at stake: you have your character take

my gun away and send me home, bruised and

grumbling.

You don’t need to wait for the Raise you can’t See to

Escalate. You can Escalate as soon as you want.

In any given conflict, you can roll each of your Stat’s

dice only once. In a gunfight, we’d roll Acuity plus Will —

but we both rolled our Acuity when we were just talking,

and we both rolled our Will when we started punching!

Having my character raise the gun wouldn’t give me any

new Stat dice.

Using Traits and

Things

E

scalating to gun fighting would, however, give me dice

for the gun itself — 1d4 plus 1d8, as it happens — plus

dice for any gun fighting Traits I might bring into play. It

works like this:

When you use one of your Traits to Raise or See, you

get to roll its dice. When you use one of your Belongings

to Raise or See, same thing, you get to roll its dice.

Roll the dice after you say your action, but before you

put dice forward.

Like Stats and everything else, you can roll a Trait’s

or a Belonging’s dice only once in a conflict. After that,

you can still use the Trait or Belonging to See or Raise,

but you don’t get more dice for it. It doesn’t matter how

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many times I have my character adjust his eyeglasses, for

instance; I get to roll their dice just once, the first time.

So let’s see how that could go. Let’s take it from the

punch.

Now all I have left to Raise with is a 2 and

some 1s, and you have a 6, a 5, a 4 and some stuff.

If I stay in the fight, you’ll beat the crap out of me.

Instead ... I have Zeke raise his gun.

“I can’t believe you hit me,” I say. “I pull the

trigger.”

First thing first: I’m Escalating to gun fighting.

If I hadn’t already, I’d roll Acuity and Will. I have

so I don’t.

Then I roll the dice for the gun, 1d4 plus 1d8.

I roll a 3 and a 7. I also have a Trait: “I’m a good

shot 2d6,” so I roll those dice: a 2 and a 4.

I look at your dice: your highest two are still a 6

and a 4. If I put forward my 7 and my 4, I’ll force

you to Take the Blow — but I don’t want that, as

it happens. That’s Fallout in d10s and you’re my

brother, after all. I put forward my 3 and my 4; I

know you can Block or Dodge a 7.

Your character has a wicked handy Trait, though:

“disarming enemies 2d8.” So when you say (Seeing

with 6 and 1, Block or Dodge), “I grab the barrel of

the gun and shove it upward so you shoot into the

air,” and then you say, “and I jerk it out of your

hands,” things take a bad turn for me. You roll a

3 and an 8 on your 2d8. You Raise with the 8 and

your 4, so I have to Take the Blow. I See with my

7 and my two 2s. Your character gets the gun and

I get 3d6 Fallout. (We’ve escalated to gun fighting,

yes, but the blow I took was merely rough physical

treatment, not a gunshot.)

Anyhow we struggle over the gun but if you’ve

been paying attention to our dice, you’ll see that I

can’t win.

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Now your character does send mine home,

humiliated and gunless.

Is the potential for bad, bad Fallout — inflicted and

received, remember; when one gun comes out, others often

follow — anyway is it worth those dice? Depends on the

circumstances and your personal will.

Improvised Things: Sometimes you’ll have your

character use a tool or weapon not listed on your sheet.

If your character’s using it to its intended purpose

— shooting a gun, looking through a spyglass, hitting

things with a hammer — you get its normal dice. If your

character’s using it for something unintended — hitting

someone with a pistol’s butt, wedging a hammer into a

doorjamb to hold it shut — you get 1d6, or 1d4 if it’s a

dumb, desperate or dangerous thing to do. There’s an

example in passing below, so keep an eye out for it.

Occasionally a character will burst into a conflict

already in progress. The player doesn’t get to roll dice

— you can’t join a conflict already underway as a full

participant — so instead you can treat the character

mechanically as an improvised thing. Incorporate her into

a Raise or a See for 1d8 if she’s big, 2d6 if she’s excellent,

2d8 if she’s big and excellent, 1d6 if she’s normal, or 1d4

if she’s crap. If you have a Relationship with her, that’s

like a belonging written on your character sheet: roll your

Relationship dice instead, no matter how excellent, big or

crap she might be.

Timing Traits and Things

— Say your See or Raise, incorporating the Trait or

Thing. This brings it into play.

— Roll its dice and add them to whatever dice you’ve

already got.

— Put forward the dice you’re using for your See or

Raise.

If you say “I shoot you” for a Raise, for instance,

you get to roll your gun’s dice and then put your two dice

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forward. The dice you roll for the Trait or Thing are

available to you.

Remember that you can roll a Trait’s or Thing’s dice

only once in any conflict, no matter how many times you

incorporate it into a See or Raise.

Giving

W

hen you Give instead of Seeing, you don’t need to

Take the Blow. In fact, one of the best reasons to

Give is to avoid a Blow you can’t bear to Take.

There’s no need to stay in a conflict to the bitter end.

You can and should Give as soon as your character would,

as soon as you’re willing to let the conflict go — be it

because the stakes aren’t worth it, or because you’ve

thought of follow-up stakes even better — or as soon as

you realize you can’t win.

When you Give instead of Raising, you get to cut your

losses. Grab your highest remaining single die and set it

aside. If there’s any follow-up conflict, roll your Stat and

Relationship dice as usual, then add this reserved die to

the mix. Don’t reroll it! This represents the advantage you

keep by ceding the previous stakes on your own terms.

Fallout

B

ut what about those blows my character took? Here’s

how Fallout Dice work:

a. Roll all your Fallout Dice. If you Took more than

one Blow, you might have Fallout in different sizes; that’s

just fine. Roll ’em all and add the two highest together;

that’s your Fallout Sum.

I roll my 7d6 Fallout: 1 1 2 4 5 5 6. I’m hurtin’

at 11.

b. Is your Fallout Sum less than 8? If so, your character

suffers only short-term consequences. Choose one of these

things (this is the short-term list):

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— Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats for your

next conflict.

— Take a new trait rated 1d4 for your next conflict.

— Change the dice of one of your character’s

Relationships to d4s for your next conflict.

— Have your character leave the scene and spend some

time alone. Only choose this one if nobody else launches a

follow-up conflict.

c. Otherwise, if your Fallout Sum is 8 or higher, your

character suffers lasting harm. Choose one of these things

(this is the long-term list):

— Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats.

— Take a new trait at 1d4.

— Take a new relationship at 1d4.

— Add 1d to an existing d4 trait or relationship.

— Subtract 1d from an existing d6+ trait or relationship.

— Change the die size of an existing trait or relationship

to d4.

— Erase a Belonging from your character’s sheet.

— Rewrite your coat’s description to include permanent

damage. Reduce your coat’s dice if it’s called for.

d. In addition, is your Fallout Sum 12 or higher? If so,

your character’s injured. Choose again from the long-term

list.

Injured how badly, though?

e. Is your Fallout Sum less than 16? If so, Roll dice

equal to your character’s Body. If you can See your

current Fallout Sum in 3 or fewer dice, your character will

recover without medical attention. Stop here. Otherwise,

bump your current Fallout Sum up to 16 and continue.

f. Is your Fallout Sum 16 or higher? If so, your

character’s badly injured. With medical attention he might

live, but without it, he won’t.

— If your character gets medical attention, launch a new

conflict. You roll your character’s Body plus the healer’s

Acuity, plus any relevant Relationships, Traits and Tools,

of course. (If your healer is a fellow Player Character, have

that player roll the dice.) I roll all your Fallout Dice again

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plus the Demonic Influence (about which, more later).

What’s at stake is whether your character will live. Your

healer takes any Fallout from this roll. If you and your

healer win, your character will live; stop here. Otherwise

bump your current Fallout Sum up to 20 and continue.

— If you don’t get medical attention, bump your current

Fallout Sum up to 20 and continue.

g. Is your Fallout Sum 20 or higher? If so, your

character’s dead. Choose one of the following:

— Die now.

— Set up your death scene, during which you’ll die.

Notice that since only guns inflict d10 Fallout, only a

gunfight can kill your character outright, and then only

if you roll two 10s on your Fallout Dice. Otherwise, your

character will at least have the opportunity to survive with

medical care.

Notice also that since just talking inflicts only d4

Fallout, only if you roll two 4s will an argument give your

character long-term consequences.

h. While your Fallout Dice are still there on the table,

check to see: did you roll any 1s?

If so, your character gets something good out of the

conflict. Choose one of these things:

— Add 1 to one of your Stats.

— Create a new Trait at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Trait.

— Change the d-size of an existing Trait.

— Create a new Relationship at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Relationship.

— Change the d-size of an existing Relationship.

— Write a new Belonging on your character sheet and

give it its usual dice.

(This is the experience list. Choose only one per

conflict, no matter how many 1s you rolled in Fallout.)

i. All of these many choices you get to make, whatever

you choose, you have to justify it out of the events of the

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conflict. If any of your fellow players can’t see it, you have

to explain better, say more, and win that person over.

My Fallout Sum, as you remember, is 11. My

character suffers lasting harm but isn’t injured.

From the long-term list I choose to change the

die size of my character’s Relationship with your

character, his brother, to d4. Is it justified? I’d be

surprised if anyone even asked.

Also I did, in fact, roll at least one 1 on my

Fallout Dice. From the experience list I choose a

new Relationship for my character: the shopkeeper’s

purported wife, 1d6. I explain that while he’s

not gonna go shoot her, his hate isn’t resolved,

it’s festering. He thinks about her all the time.

Everybody agrees that that makes sense, so there we

go.

Follow-up Conflicts

A

follow-up conflict is simply a new conflict that follows

on the one just ended. In general you treat it exactly

as you would any other, but it does have a few special

considerations:

— It counts as a follow-up conflict only if its stakes

follow directly from the previous conflict’s resolution.

— Its stakes can be the same as the previous conflict’s

stakes only if all three of its participants, its stage as

set, and its opening arena are different. That is, if your

character tries to talk my character into admitting her sin,

but fails, you can’t just try again. That conflict’s done.

What you have to do if you want a follow-up with the same

stakes is come back another time or catch her at some other

place, with your friends to back you up — and this time it

can’t be just talking.

— If you cut your losses in the previous conflict, Giving

instead when it was your turn to Raise, you get to keep

your single best die from that conflict. After you roll

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your dice for this conflict, add your reserved die (without

rerolling it) to the mix.

— As the GM, I get an extra option, and it’s a good

one. If nobody cares about my NPCs’ Fallout, when I

roll my Fallout Dice, I don’t calculate and choose Fallout.

Instead, I simply give you the two highest dice to add

into your side of the new conflict. You don’t reroll them,

just put them straight in with your own dice. They’re the

advantage you carry into the follow-up.

If anyone does care, I roll and assign Fallout as usual.

Later on, I have your character’s brother hire

some thugs to go burn down the shopkeeper’s store.

We play it out as a conflict and your character fends

them off and manages to corner one in a nearby

stable. There’s lots of hitting and even a couple of

shots fired during the conflict, so I have some ugly

Fallout Dice: 6d6 and 3d10; when I roll them the

two highest are a 6 and a 9 — but nobody really

cares whether this thug is hurt or killed, nobody’s

going to keep track of his Traits or Relationships.

You launch a follow-up conflict; what’s at stake

is whether this captured thug reveals that your

character’s brother is behind the attempted arson.

So instead of giving the thug his due Fallout, I give

those two highest Fallout Dice to you for the follow-

up conflict. You roll your character’s Acuity and

Heat and then I pass them over.

Frankly, an extra 6 and 9 for you to Raise me

with? I don’t like my odds.

Using Relationships

B

ecause rolling your character’s relationship depends on

who your character’s opponent is and what’s at stake,

you’ll roll them at the beginning of the conflict, with your

Stats.

With a Person: A relationship with a person

contributes its dice to your side of a conflict when a) the

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person is your character’s opponent, b) the person is what’s

at stake, or c) the person comes to your character’s active

aid in a conflict already underway.

With an Institution: A relationship with an

institution (like the Faith or the Dogs) contributes its dice

to your side of a conflict when a) your character’s opponent

is a person with authority in the institution, or b) what’s

at stake is your character’s status with regard to the

institution.

With a Place: A relationship with a place contributes

its dice to your side of a conflict when a) your character’s

at the place, or b) the place is what’s at stake.

With a Sin: A relationship with a sin contributes its

dice to your side of a conflict when a) your character has

committed the sin and it’s relevant to the conflict, b) your

character’s resisted committing the sin and it’s relevant to

the conflict, c) what’s at stake is someone’s commission of

the sin — your character’s, your opponent’s, or someone

else’s.

With a Demon: A relationship with a demon

contributes its dice to your side of a conflict when a) the

demon is your character’s opponent, via a sorcerer or

possessed person, or b) the demon is what’s at stake.

If your character has a Relationship with a demon,

he or she can ask the demon for help at any time. Add

the situation’s Demonic Influence to your side, with

supernatural special effects. This makes your character a

Sorcerer; what that means to your character’s soul is, as

always, in your hands.

Timing New Relationships

If you have unassigned Relationship Dice, you can put

a new Relationship on your character sheet at any time.

Just name the relationship and assign dice to it.

If you assign a new Relationship during a conflict, and

the Relationship is with either your opponent or what’s at

stake, roll the newly applicable dice right away.

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Multiple Opponents

T

he Raise-See-Raise rhythm is very easy when there’s

only you and me, but what if there are more of us?

a. Whenever you Raise, everybody whose character is

affected has to See. You decide who that is; make it clear in

your description of your Raise.

b. Break it into Rounds and Goes if that helps. In every

Round, every player gets one Go; your Go is when you

Raise.

c. You get your Go in order of highest Best Roll.

So here’s a little outline of how it works, stripped down

to the bones:

Round Starts.

Order by Best Roll is: Player 1, Player 2, GM, Player 4,

Player 3. Boldface marks each go.

Player 1: I Raise, GM is affected.

GM: I See.

Player 2: I Raise, Player 3 and GM are affected.

Player 3: I See.

GM: I See.

GM: I Raise. Player 1, Player 2, Player 4 are

affected.

Player 1: I See.

Player 2: I See.

Player 4: I See.

Player 4: I Raise. GM is affected.

GM: I See.

Player 3: I Raise. Player 2 is affected.

Player 2: I See.

Round Ends.

Next Round, everybody still in the conflict gets one

Go again, but the order may have changed. Here’s how it

might look, fleshed out:

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The other PCs have had enough of your

character’s brother. They’ve decided to beat sense

into him. You see their point but, well, he’s your

brother, and you’ll stand with him. They corner the

two of you in a hay barn.

You’re Player 3; I’m the GM. Zeke’s your

character’s brother, recall; I’m playing him. We join

the fight in progress:

Round starts.

Order by Best Roll is: Player 1, Player 2, me,

Player 4, you. Boldface marks each go.

Player 1: I grab Zeke from behind and hold

him for you to punch [to Player 4].

Me (Block or Dodge): He twists out of your

grip. You can keep hold of his jacket if you want.

Player 1: Cool. I throw it down in the hay.

Player 2: I hook your ankle and throw you

over into Zeke [to you].

You (Taking the Blow): Oof. I windmill my arms

and go down on my butt.

Me (Block or Dodge): ...But Zeke jumps out of

the way.

Me: In fact he jumps over to the wall and

pulls down a big ol’ hay rake. Since you’re

down [to you], he swings it freely, chest high,

like whaa! at all of you [to Players 1, 2, 4].

(I roll a d6 for the improvised weapon, by the

way.)

Player 1 (Taking the Blow): You knock the wind

outa me.

Player 2 (Block or Dodge): I throw myself

down. Whish!

Player 4 (Block or Dodge): I catch the rake, like

hah!

Player 4: ...And jerk it out of your hands

[to me].

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Me (Taking the Blow): All yours.

You: Hey, you’re down in the hay with me

[to Player 2]? I roll over onto you and get you

in a head lock.

Player 2 (Taking the Blow): Ow! Get off! Urk!

Round Ends.

In play, you should make explicit who you expect to

See your Raises. Usually it’ll be each and every one of

your opponents, and usually it’ll be obvious from your

description of what you do. Only take care that none of

your opponents could simply ignore your Raise; a Raise is,

remember, something that your opponent can’t ignore.

If you Reverse a Blow in a group conflict, keep the die

for whatever you do next, whether it’s Raise or See.

Helping

I

f you and a friend are in a conflict together, you can

help one another. It works like this:

On your friend’s Go, you can give one of your dice to

your friend’s Raise. You have to have your character do

something that would a) clearly and directly contribute

to your friend’s character’s action, and b) be obviously

something your character could do, given everything else

going on. If anyone objects that your character’s too busy

or in the wrong part of the scene, you should graciously

withdraw. Given that everybody thinks it’s reasonable,

though, just slide one of your dice over to go with your

friend’s.

On someone else’s Go, you can give one of your dice to

your friend’s See. Again, you have to have your character

do something both clearly helpful and clearly possible, and

again if anyone objects, don’t insist.

Either way, however, you’ve spent the die, and

moreover, you’ve borrowed against your own next Raise.

On your next Go, Raise with only one die.

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You can’t help two people between your Goes. If you

could, you’d have to Raise with no dice, and that doesn’t

make any sense.

Player 4’s character has reversed the rake in

his hands and brings it crashing down on your

character’s back. Player 4 puts forward a big

Raise, and you’ve only got small dice: you’ll be out

of the conflict.

I’ve been holding a good die in reserve, though.

“Zeke shouts and shoves you out of the way,” I say,

and I give you my die. With it, you’re able to See

and stay in the fight.

I’ve spent it from my next Raise, though, so

when it comes around to my Go, I’ll Raise with only

one die.

When you give a die to a friend for a See, it doesn’t

count against her for Fallout. In other words, if your

friend is able to See with one die plus yours, that’s a

Reversal; with two dice plus yours, that’s a Block or

Dodge; with three dice plus yours, that’s Taking the Blow

for three dice of Fallout.

Using Ceremony

S

orcerers, demons, the possessed, and the souls of

the Faithful can’t ignore ceremony performed with

authority. That means that when your character’s in

conflict with one of those sorts of opponents, you can use

ceremony to See and Raise!

Your character can perform an entire ceremony,

including many ceremonial elements, as a single See or

Raise, or each See and Raise can be a single element of

ceremony. Choose whichever better serves the pace of the

conflict. I call upon the Authority of the Ancients! I make

the Sign of the Tree! I command you By Name to depart!

Raise 9! Or, if you’d rather: I call upon the Authority of

the Ancients! Raise 6! I make the Sign of the Tree! See 7! I

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command you By Name to depart! Raise 9! Either is, as I

say, valid.

In addition, the elements of ceremony that your

character uses determines the Fallout dice that your

character’s opponent receives when Taking the Blow.

Ceremony is like a weapon, in that way.

Ceremonial Fallout:

— Anointing with Sacred Earth: d8s.

— Calling by Name: d4s.

— Invoking the Ancients: d4s.

— Laying on Hands: d6s.

— Making the Sign of the Tree: d6s.

— Reciting the Book of Life: d4s.

— Singing Praise: d6s.

— Three In Authority: d8s.

If you’re creating a multiple-element ceremony as a

single Raise, inflict the highest die-size Fallout of all the

elements you’re including. If, for instance, your ceremony

includes Calling by Name, Invoking the Ancients, and

Making the Sign of the Tree, it inflicts d6s for Fallout.

Strictly, bringing ceremony into a conflict is not

escalating. You don’t get to roll new dice — unless you’ve

got a Trait or Belonging that now applies. No, ceremony is

useful only because it lets you Raise against demons and

sorcerers on their own terms.

Remember the supernatural continuum? If your game

is at the low-supernatural edge, you might go the entire

thing without using ceremony a’tall.

Demonic Influence

S

ome conflicts call for me as the GM to “roll Demonic

Influence,” that is, to bring to bear the sort of

generalized badness of what’s going on in the town.

Demonic Influence depends on what the Dogs have

discovered about the town, not what’s actually going on.

What’s the worst “something wrong” manifestation the

PCs have seen here?

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iv: Conflict & Resolution

— Injustice: the Demonic Influence is 1d10.

— Demonic Attacks: the Demonic Influence is 2d10.

— Heresy: the Demonic Influence is 3d10.

— Sorcery: the Demonic Influence is 4d10.

— Hate and Murder: the Demonic Influence is 5d10.

There are three cases in particular:

When a character’s critically injured but gets

medical attention, I scoop up all of the Fallout Dice the

player just rolled, add the Demonic Influence, and roll

the lot. If the character’s dying but didn’t roll any Fallout

— if the character’s life was named as what’s at stake in a

conflict, for instance — I roll four dice plus the Demonic

Influence. I roll four dice of a size appropriate to the

circumstances or the resolution of the conflict: 4d10 if the

character’s shot, 4d8 if she’s stabbed, hacked, hanged or

clubbed, 4d6 if she’s strangled, stomped down, fallen or

drowned.

When a character launches a conflict and there’s

no clear opposition, I roll 4d6 plus the Demonic Influence.

When a Sorcerer calls upon the demons for help,

I roll the Demonic Influence into the sorcerer’s side of the

conflict, as though it were a Trait or Thing.

GMing Conflicts

I

think of this as “second session” advice. The first

time you play, you’ll be busy figuring out the simple

mechanics and rhythm of the game. It’s when you reflect

on the first time that this section will make the most sense.

— As GM, you get to help establish stakes. If your

player says “what’s at stake is this” you can say “no, I

don’t dig that, how about what’s at stake is this instead?”

Not only can you, you should. This is an important duty

you have as GM and you shouldn’t abdicate it.

— As GM, you should push for small stakes. It’s

natural for the players to set stakes big. “Do we get the

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whole truth from her about everything that’s going on?

Do we convince him to give up his sinnin’ ways and do

right forever after? Do we undo all the harm the cult has

done?” You as GM have to engage with them and wrestle

them down. You should be saying, “no, how about do you

win her trust about some small matter? Do you give him

a moment’s pause? Do you make this one person breathe

easier, right now?” It’s out of creative tension between

their big stakes and your small stakes that the right stakes

are born.

What you’re after is two things: follow-up conflicts and

givable conflicts.

Since you want good follow-up conflicts, the right

stakes can go either way without creating a dead end or a

dull patch. Pushing stakes smaller will tend to make them

less make-or-break.

Givable conflicts — that’s the trick. The right stakes

will make it so that escalating, taking a blow and giving

are all roughly equal. Set the stakes too large and

Escalating is always worth it. Set them small enough and

Giving vs. Escalating becomes a real question, as does

Giving vs. Taking a bad Blow.

Conflicts always end with a Give. It doesn’t have to be

because one side has used every single last die. It can be as

soon as one side sees which way the wind’s blowing - but

that won’t happen if the stakes are too grandiose.

— As GM, don’t put up with hedged stakes. “Do

we get him to repent?” is fine. “Do we get him to repent

without spilling blood?” is not. Think outcomes, not

methods; the methods come from playing the conflict

through.

— As GM, you should always follow your group’s

lead. A big part of your job in the first couple of sessions

is to figure out, mostly by observation, your group’s

standards for legit Raises and Sees, invoking traits, valid

stakes, using ceremony, the supernatural, and so on.

However, the thing to observe in play isn’t what the

group’s doing, but instead who’s dissatisfied with what

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iv: Conflict & Resolution: Recap

the group’s doing. The player who frowns and uses

withdrawing body language in response to someone

else’s Raise, or who’s like “that’s weak” when someone

reaches for dice — that’s the player whose lead to follow.

Everyone’s Raises etc. should come to meet the most

critical player’s standards. As GM, it’s your special

responsibility to pay attention, figure out what those

standards are, and to press the group to live up to them.

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Recap

Resolving Conflicts

First, say what’s at stake.

Second, set the stage and the opening arena.

Third, roll Stat dice, depending on the opening arena:

— Just talking: Acuity + Heart.

— Physical, not fighting: Body + Heart.

— Fighting hand to hand: Body + Will.

— Gun fighting: Acuity + Will.

Fourth, roll Relationship dice if they apply.

Relationships apply when your relation is your opponent,

or your relation is at stake.

Fifth, take turns Raising:

— A Raise is an action your opponent’s character can’t

ignore.

— Whoever opens the conflict does the first Raise.

— In every round, everyone Raises once, in order of Best

Roll.

— For every Raise, everyone affected has to See.

— If your Raise or See brings one of your Traits or

Belongings into the conflict, roll its dice.

— If you See with one die, that’s Reversing the Blow. If

you See with two dice, that’s Block or Dodge. If you See

with three or more dice, that’s Taking the Blow.

— When you Take a Blow, you get Fallout Dice equal to

the number of dice you used to See.

— If you Escalate the conflict to a new arena, roll your

appropriate Stats.

— If you Help someone, give her a die, and Raise with

only one die when it’s your go.

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Sixth, when someone can’t See a Raise, or else when

someone Gives, that person’s out of the conflict.

— If you Give instead when it’s your turn to Raise, you

get to cut your losses: keep your single highest die for a

follow-up conflict, if there is one.

— The last person in the conflict gets to say what

happens with what’s at stake.

Seventh, everybody rolls Fallout:

— If you roll any 1s, choose something from the

experience list.

— If your highest two dice sum to less than 8, choose

something from the short-term list.

— If they sum to 8 to 11, choose something from the

long-term list.

— If they sum to 12 or more, choose two things from the

long-term list, and your character’s injured.

— If they sum to 16 to 19, your character’s badly injured.

Launch a follow-up conflict where what’s at stake is

whether he dies.

— If they sum to 20, your character’s dying.

Eighth, somebody launch a follow-up conflict, or

move on to the next scene.

Timing Dice

— Roll Stat dice at the beginning of the conflict and

when the conflict escalates to a new arena.

— Roll Relationship dice at the beginning of the conflict,

only.

— Roll Trait and Thing dice when you bring the Trait or

thing into play, incorporated into a See or Raise. Roll the

dice after you say the See or Raise, but before you assign its

dice.

— Roll each Stat’s, each Relationship’s, each Trait’s and

each Thing’s dice at most once per conflict.

Fallout Dice

Whenever you Take a Blow, you get one Fallout die for

each die you used to See. The size of the dice depends on

the blow you took:

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The Blow was...

— Not physical, not ceremonial: d4s.

— Physical: d6s.

— A weapon: d8s.

— A gunshot: d10s.

Ceremonial:

— Anointing with Sacred Earth: d8s.

— Calling by Name: d4s.

— Invoking the Ancients: d4s.

— Laying on Hands: d6s.

— Making the Sign of the Tree: d6s.

— Reciting the Book of Life: d4s.

— Singing Praise: d6s.

— Three In Authority: d8s.

— If the ceremony included more than one of these, take

the highest die size.

Interpreting Fallout:

— Did you roll at least one 1? Choose something from

the experience Fallout list. Continue.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 7 or less? Choose

something from the short-term Fallout list. Stop.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 8-11? Your

character’s injured: choose something from the long-term

Fallout list. Stop.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 12 or more? Your

character’s badly injured. Choose two things from the

long-term Fallout list. Continue.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 12-15? You might

need medical attention. Roll your Body. Consider your two

highest Fallout dice to be a Raise; if you can See in three

dice or fewer, you’ll recover without medical attention;

stop. If you can’t, bump your Fallout sum to 16; continue.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 16-19? Without

medical attention your character will die: bump your

Fallout sum to 20 and continue. With medical attention,

your character might live: launch a follow up conflict: your

Body + the healer’s Acuity vs. your Fallout dice (rerolled)

+ the Demonic Influence. What’s at stake is: does your

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character live? If you lose, bump your Fallout sum to 20

and continue; otherwise stop.

— Did your two highest dice sum to 20? Your character’s

dying. Stop.

The short-term Fallout list:

— Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats for your

next conflict.

— Take a new trait rated 1d4 for your next conflict.

— Change the dice of one of your character’s

Relationships to d4s for your next conflict.

— Have your character leave the scene and spend some

time alone. Only choose this one if nobody else launches a

follow-up conflict.

The long-term Fallout list:

— Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats.

— Take a new trait at 1d4.

— Take a new relationship at 1d4.

— Add 1d to an existing d4 trait or relationship.

— Subtract 1d from an existing d6+ trait or relationship.

— Change the die size of an existing trait or relationship

to d4.

— Erase a Belonging from your character’s sheet.

— Rewrite your coat’s description to include permanent

damage. Reduce your coat’s dice if it’s called for.

The experience Fallout list:

— Add 1 to one of your Stats.

— Create a new Trait at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Trait.

— Change the d-size of an existing Trait.

— Create a new Relationship at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Relationship.

— Change the d-size of an existing Relationship.

— Write a Belonging on your character sheet and give it

its usual dice.

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Demonic Influence

What’s the worst “something wrong” manifestation the

PCs have seen here?

— Injustice: the Demonic Influence is 1d10.

— Demonic Attacks: the Demonic Influence is 2d10.

— Heresy: the Demonic Influence is 3d10.

— Sorcery: the Demonic Influence is 4d10.

— Hate and Murder: the Demonic Influence is 5d10.

GMing Conflict Resolution

— Help establish stakes.

— Push for small stakes.

— Don’t accept hedged stakes.

— Learn and stand for your group’s standards!

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in Action

Y

ou can see how the conflict rules apply to

arguments, chases, fistfights, shootouts, preaching

to a crowd, exorcising a demon — but they’re more

flexible even than that. Here are some subtler cases to get

you thinking.

Split Seconds

1.

What’s at stake: do you outshoot the shooting

instructor?

— The stage: the shooting range outside the Dogs’

Temple. You’ve been shooting at cans and scarecrows; now

someone flips a nickel. Do you hit it? All the Seeing and

Raising has to come between when the person flips the

nickel and when you pull the trigger.

— You roll Acuity + Will. I roll 4d6 + 4d10 (this being

your initiatory conflict).

— My Raises might include the sun’s glare, the distance

to the shot, the nickel’s flickering in the light, the fact that

you’ll hurt the instructor in front of your fellow initiates,

your grandfather’s insistence to you as a kid that you never

take a shot you can’t hit.

— Your Raises might include stilling your breath,

stilling your mind, leading your target, remembering your

grandfather’s hand on yours as he taught you to shoot,

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v: Resolution in Action

fear that if you miss the shot you’ll look presumptuous and

foolish.

2. What’s at stake: who draws first?

— The stage: the dusty street through town. The big

town clock has just made that click noise it makes before it

strikes noon. All the Seeing and Raising has to happen in

the instant before the first gong.

— We roll Acuity + Will.

— Our Raises might include flexing our hands,

narrowing our eyes, a bird flying across the sun, our

fear of death, stilling our thoughts, little flinches and

hesitations, doubts about our rightness in the fight.

Other Time Tricks

3.

What’s at stake: do you learn to ride?

— The stage: the hills and brooks and scrubland

above the Dogs’ Temple. You’ve never ridden a horse before

you came here. Our Seeing and Raising will take place

in snapshots over the months of your initiation, like a

montage sequence in any movie.

— You roll Body + Heart. I roll 4d6 + 4d10, again.

— My Raises might be the challenging riding situations

you find yourself in.

— Your Raises might be riding challenges you set for

yourself, but each time, you start with “on the next day

that I go out riding...”

4. I gave an example way back in the Character

Creation chapter:

What’s at stake: do you learn to stop swearing?

— The stage: your teachers bring you into council and

take you to task.

— You roll Acuity + Heart. I roll 4d6 + 4d10.

— We Raise and See back and forth, but somewhere in

the middle I Raise with this: “two nights later, two men

corner you behind the stable...”

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v: Resolution in Action

Cool, huh? Two nights pass between my See and my

Raise.

5. How about flashbacks?

What’s at stake: do I lose you?

— The stage: you’ve tracked me into the mountains up

above Bowers Draw. My hideout is up here somewhere.

I’ve killed some people and you aren’t inclined to let me get

away.

— We roll Acuity + Heart.

— We Raise and See back and forth, but somewhere in

the middle you Raise with this: “flashback to me at the

scene of the killings. I’m bent down, looking at something

on the corner of the doorframe: some red mud. I do it like

this between my fingers. It’s the same red mud as up here

in the creek bed!”

Bodyguards

6.

What’s at stake: do you gun me down?

— The stage: you’ve tracked me into the mountains

up above Bowers Draw and run me to ground. I’ve got

a couple of my thugs with me. You aren’t in the mood to

talk.

— We roll Acuity + Will and start shooting.

— The interesting thing here is that I can have one of

my thugs take the bullet as a Block or Dodge, if I want.

You Raise with “I creep up along the ridge until I’ve got a

shot at you” and I Take the Blow, “I keep shooting where

I thought you were.” Then you Raise with “I draw careful

sight at the side of your head ... BAM!” and I Block or

Dodge, “my thug Billy sees the glint of your barrel and

dives! You splatter me with his gore!” Billy’s dead, poor

jerk, but it was still a Block or Dodge because you didn’t

hit me.

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Ambush

7.

What’s at stake: do you get murdered in your bed?

— The stage: your room at night. A possessed

sinner creeps into your room without waking you.

— You roll only Acuity, because you’re asleep. I roll

Body + Will.

— My first Raise will be to hit you in the head with my

axe. I get my axe dice too! I’m rolling a lot more dice than

you, so probably you have to Take the Blow. But check it

out — that means you take Fallout and get to say how,

it doesn’t mean you’re dead. You aren’t dead unless the

whole conflict goes my way.

— So let’s say that you take the blow: “I hear him

coming even in my sleep, but he gashes me bad...” Then

it’s your Raise, and you can escalate: “...I come awake

already in motion, with blood in my eyes and my knife in

my hand!” Away we go!

I should tell you, in an early playtest I startled one of

my players bad with this very conflict. In most roleplaying

games, saying “an enemy sneaks into your room in the

middle of the night and hits you in the head with an axe”

is cheating. I’ve hosed the character and the player with

no warning and no way out. Not in Dogs, though: the

resolution rules are built to handle it. I don’t have to pull

my punches!

(You’ve GMed a bunch of RPGs before, right? Think

about what I just said for a minute. You know how you

usually pull your punches?)

Life or Death

8.

What’s at stake: are you dead?

— The stage: you’ve been hit in the head with an

axe. You Took the Blow and rolled a 16 for Fallout. Your

companion’s rushing to your side to provide first aid.

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v: Resolution in Action

— Your friend rolls your Body plus his own Acuity. I

roll all of your Fallout Dice again, plus the town’s Demonic

Influence.

— My Raises might include you falling unconscious, you

hearing the voices of angels, your blood spurting, your

pulse failing, your deceased loved ones welcoming you

among them.

— Your friend’s Raises might include medical attention,

exhortation, and ceremony.

There’s another way to die than by taking bad Fallout.

What’s at stake is: does my character kill yours? It’s

possible for you to lose the conflict without taking any

Fallout a’tall, let alone rolling a 16+.

When that happens, treat it exactly as though

your attacker hit you with four dice Fallout, of the size

appropriate to his weapon — d10s for a gun, d8s for

an axe, etc. — and you rolled a 16. If you get medical

attention, we roll over into this new conflict: are you dead?

If you don’t, we don’t: you’re just dead.

For instance, I have a possessed person hit you in the

head with an axe, what’s at stake is does he murder you, I

put forward a fat Raise and you don’t have the dice to See

... so you have to Give. You’re dying of an axe in the head.

Ouch. Your companion rushes to your side. So now we roll

forward into this conflict where what’s at stake is: are you

dead? I roll 4d8 + Demonic Influence, just as though you’d

taken 4d8 Fallout.

Special Effects

9.

Think back to that supernatural continuum. Let’s say

that we’re playing somewhere in the middle of it: not

flashy, not colorful, but creepy...

What’s at stake: do you figure out who murdered

her?

— The stage: you’re bending over her body, cold, where

it lies in the tool shed. She’s got a rake through her.

— You Roll Acuity + Heart. I roll Demonic Influence.

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— Your first Raise is to Call her by Name and ask her

ghost to answer your questions.

Sweet! Now we get to incorporate the chills, the

disembodied voices, the reenactment of the crime, the

pain, the hate of talking to a ghost into our Raises and

Sees.

10. What’s at stake: do you control the demon?

— The stage: this is another initiatory accomplishment.

Your teachers take you to a prepared place outside of

Bridal Falls City, where there’s a consecrated grove of

trees and a huge marble box. The box is carved with

prayers and inside it there’s a demon. Your teachers give

you a crowbar and wait among the trees.

— You roll Acuity + Heart. I roll 4d6 + 4d10.

— Naturally your Raises and Sees will be all ceremony.

— I decide at once that the demon’s going to try to

possess you, and if it succeeds it’ll pantomime forcing itself

back into the box, as a ruse to get your teachers to let it

escape. So in my Raises I have it battering on you like

wind, whispering into your ears, forcing itself into your

mouth and eyes, anything to get inside.

I hope I win. I have a great follow-up conflict in mind.

11. Or let’s say that we’re playing way out on the

other end of it, where the whole landscape of the game

is magically charged. It’s a Western version of a Chinese

Ghost Story!

What’s at stake: do you stop me from murdering her?

— The stage: I rode down on her in the middle of the

town street, but you spooked my horse and it bucked me

off. Now I jump up, swinging my wicked big repeater

around and escalating to shooting!

— We roll Acuity + Will.

— My Raise is fanning the hammer. Bam bam bam bam

bam!

— You put forward dice to Block or Dodge and say

something like this: “I sweep my coat around and the

bullets spark off of it, like pang pang pang! I’m mighty

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with the power of righteousness!” Then you Raise with

something like this: “I Call you by your Secret Name!

Drop the gun!”

Fun, huh?

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vi: The Structure of

the Game

I

f Dogs in the Vineyard were a board game, this would

be the board.

1. Character Creation

Players:

— Create suitable characters;

— Contribute to one another’s characters;

— Contribute details to the game’s landscape and

culture, in the form of back story, Traits, et cetera;

— Get a handle on the game’s resolution rules.

PCs:

— Get initiated.

GM:

— Contribute to the players’ characters;

— Present the game’s landscape and culture,

incorporating the other players’ contributions;

— Begin to establish your role as the primary author of

adversity in the game, via conflict resolution.

NPCs:

— Support and/or oppose the PCs’ initiations, as called

for by the initiatory conflicts.

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vi: The Structure of the Game

2. Long-term Play: Each

Character’s Service as a Dog

Players:

— Show your character in action.

— Comment on each others’ characters in action.

— Continue to contribute details to the game’s setting.

PCs:

— Travel from congregation to congregation, facing

danger and putting things as right as they can.

GM:

— Create and present towns and NPCs.

— Continue to develop and present the game’s setting,

with the players’ contributions.

— Identify and challenge the PCs’ moral grounds, by

provoking their judgment.

NPCs:

— Variously oppose, support, and otherwise engage the

PCs, to serve their own interests.

3. Short-term Play: Each Town

Players:

— Play your character!

— Respond actively to your fellow players’ play;

— Drive play toward conflict;

— Set stakes, follow up, and assign your character’s

Fallout, as called for.

PCs:

— Deliver mail and news;

— Bless babies, sanctify marriages, heal the sick and

injured, participate in ceremonies and celebrations;

— Uncover the town’s pride, sin, apostasy and hate, lay

it bare, and pronounce judgment upon it.

GM:

— Play the town!

— Drive play toward conflict;

— Actively reveal the town in play;

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— Follow the players’ lead about what’s important and

what’s not;

— DO NOT have a solution in mind, but be open to

whatever solutions the PCs come to;

— Escalate, escalate, escalate.

NPCs:

— Try to get the PCs on their side;

— Try to undermine the PCs’ authority;

— Reveal their troubles to the PCs, either directly or by

protesting too much;

— Try to chase the PCs off with threats and violence;

— Offer to help the PCs in any way necessary;

— Try to murder the PCs in their sleep;

— Ask the PCs for special considerations;

— Ask the PCs for honest advice;

— Tell the PCs that it’s no big thing, when obviously it’s

all that matters;

— etc.!

4. Short-term Play: Between Towns

Players:

— Assign your character’s Experience for the town.

PCs:

— Decide: press on to the next town, return to a

previous town, or return to the Dogs’ Temple;

— Travel and reflect.

GM:

— Prepare the town the PCs are traveling to, by creating

or updating it.

— Prepare a batch of proto-NPCs.

5. Long-term Play: At the End of a

Dog’s Service

Players & GM:

— Create an epilogue or eulogy for the exiting

character.

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Player:

— Create a new character.

Going Forward:

— If the exiting character comes back into play, he or

she can be played as either a temporary PC, an NPC, or

some combination.

If you prefer, you can think of this chapter as the

skeleton of the game, and all the other chapters as the

meat.

If at any moment of play, you don’t know precisely

what to do right now, check this chapter first.

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vii: Creating Towns

T

here’s something wrong, of course. That’s what

makes the game interesting, otherwise you’re just

roleplaying being welcomed by the people and

kissing their babies and shaking their hands. So when

the PCs arrive, amidst all the baby kissing and being

welcomed, some people are acting odd, or something bad

has recently happened, or there’s something just not right.

Your job as GM is to reveal the wrongness, in all its dirty

little glory.

“Something wrong” falls into a tidy progression, which

looks like this:

Pride (manifests as injustice).

...leads to...

Sin (manifests as demons attacking from outside, in

the form of famine, plague, raiding outlaw bands, or

whatever).

...leads to...

False Doctrine (manifests as corrupt religious

practices and heresy).

...leads to...

False Priesthood (manifests as demons within the

congregation: sorcery, possession and active evil).

...leads to...

Hate and murder.

When you create a town, you identify some key people

in it, decide what’s wrong with it and how it affects the

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vii: Creating Towns

people you’ve identified, decide how people will react to the

PCs’ arrival, and imagine what might happen if they never

came.

Something’s Wrong:

Pride

P

ride means wanting something better, or more, or

higher, than your fellows have. Pride doesn’t value a

thing for itself: it isn’t Pride to say “I want that because

it’s pretty.” Pride values a thing only by contrast to what

others have: it’s Pride to say “I want that because I should

have something prettier than yours.”

1. Stewardship

The Faith’s organization is made of nested domains of

spiritual authority, called Stewardship. Stewardship forms

a hierarchy of responsibility from each individual Faithful

up to the Prophets and Ancients of the Faith, who derive

their Stewardship from the King of Life. You’re responsible

for anyone who falls within your Stewardship, and you’re

responsible to whomever holds Stewardship over you.

At the end, you’ll be judged for how you fulfilled your

Stewardship.

The Faith overall looks like this, where “}” means

“falls under the Stewardship of”:

Local Families } Local Officials } Regional

Officials } Prophets & Ancients of the Faith

Families look like this:

Children, Elder Parents, Related Unmarried

Adults in the House } Married Adults } Husband

Local Officials look like this:

Various Duty-specific Officials, if there are

enough families to need specialized offices }

Counselors, if there are enough families that one

Steward can’t do it all } Steward.

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Regional Officials look just the same. The duty-

specific regional officials are to the local officials as the

local officials are to the families:

Various Duty-specific Officials, if there are

enough Branches in the region to need specialized

offices } Counselors, if there are enough Branches

that one Steward can’t oversee them all } Regional

Steward.

And the Prophets and Ancients of the Faith have

their own internal structure, but it’s not relevant. They

speak and act as one, from our point of view here.

Now, the Dogs! The Dogs look like this:

Congregation } Dogs Assigned to it } Stewards at

the Dogs’ Temple } Prophets & Ancients of the Faith

Notice that the branch Steward has Stewardship over

the families in his congregation, while the Dogs assigned

to that route have Stewardship over his congregation as a

whole, including him in his official capacity. Dogs have no

authority to solve the problems of families or individuals,

that’s the Steward’s job, except as the problems spill over

into the congregation as a whole. (Which they pretty much

do, so that’s okay.)

Oh, and an individual person looks like this:

Day-to-day Behavior, Obedience, Destiny,

Personal Relationships } You

You do not have Stewardship over your role in your

family, your congregation, or the Faith! Those belong to

your Steward.

What Stewardship means in practice is: the King of

Life will talk to you about what you have Stewardship

over, and expect you to keep it in order.

An example: Brother August is a man in Brother

Parley’s branch. He has a wife, six children (two of whom

are unmarried adults), and his wife’s aging mother in his

family. The King of Life does not talk to Brother Parley

about Brother August’s wife, kids, or mother in law. He

talks to Brother Parley about Brother August’s family:

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“Brother August’s family is troubled,” He might say. “See

what you can do about that.” Then Brother Parley goes to

Brother August and says, “The King of Life tells me your

family is troubled; what’s up?” And Brother August might

answer: “well, He tells me that my oldest is impatient and

bored, which would explain why he’s being so rude to his

grandmother. I’m thinking I’ll send him to my brother’s

out in Chapelton for a change of scenery.” That’s if

Brother August is lucky and on top of things. If he’s not,

he might answer: “yeah, the Wise Dead only knows what’s

going on with them. Fight fight fight, and I can’t keep

anyone under control.” Now Brother Parley has to say,

“okay, well you’d better get right with the King and quick,

so He’ll help you get your family in order.” If Brother

Parley’s congregation is big enough to warrant an official

in charge of gettin’ right with the King, Brother Parley

will tell him to go visit Brother August; otherwise, Brother

Parley has to see to it himself.

Stewardship applies to interpreting doctrine! The

King of Life tells the Prophets and Ancients the Truth

Immortal. The Prophets and Ancients derive from Truth

Immortal specific doctrines, as It applies to the here

and now, which they tell to the regional Stewards. The

regional Stewards apply the doctrines to the circumstances

of their regions, and tell their branch Stewards. The

branch Stewards apply these interpretations to their own

congregations, and tell the families. The husbands apply

the interpretations to themselves and their wives, and with

their wives apply them to their children and other family

members. Responsibility for following doctrine goes back

up the line: if family members don’t, the husband has to

answer to the branch Steward; if a branch doesn’t, the

branch Steward has to answer to the regional Steward; if a

region doesn’t, the regional Steward has to answer to the

Prophets and Ancients.

Pride can enter into Stewardship when:

— You think that you’d do a better job with someone

than that someone’s Steward, like if you think you know

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better what’s good for Brother Zebediah’s wife than

Brother Zebediah does.

— You think that your convenience is more important

than your Stewardship, so you don’t attend to it.

— You think that fulfilling your Stewardship obligations

means you deserve recompense or special consideration.

— You think that the person with Stewardship over you

is doing a bad job or doesn’t deserve it, or you don’t have

to listen to him.

— You use your Stewardship over someone as though it

were power, not responsibility.

— You favor some of the people over whom you have

Stewardship above the others, seeing to their needs

preferentially.

Stewardship probs will generate conflict in the game

by themselves pretty much only insofar as your group is

interested in the Faith’s structure, order, and who has to

obey whom. But it underlies everything that follows, so

best to have a good grip on it.

2. Women’s vs. Men’s Roles

Girls are expected to:

— be retiring, demure, quiet, polite, patient, and

deferential.

— do boring, repetitive, menial work without

complaining.

— be afraid of spiders, mice, guns, horses, climbing,

falling, and swimming.

— not be afraid of blood.

— tend their younger siblings.

— help make meals, keep the house clean, and keep the

animals fed.

Boys are expected to:

— be obedient, energetic, respectful, enthusiastic, smart,

and confident.

— do hard physical work without complaining.

— not be afraid of anything.

— take on increasingly adult male responsibilities.

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— not be too hard to clean up after.

Unmarried women are expected to:

— keep to their families.

— be receptive to courtship.

— fight to keep their courtships proper.

— overcome their girlish fears.

— continue on essentially as girls, otherwise.

Unmarried men are expected to:

— aggressively court multiple women (intending to

marry only one of them, until called to marry another by

the Faith, which may never happen).

— travel.

— work as men.

Married women are expected to:

— bear and raise children.

— serve their husbands.

— keep house.

Married men are expected to:

— provide for their families.

— educate their wives and children.

— defend their homes.

Old women are expected to:

— help their daughters raise their grandchildren and

keep their houses.

— be sweet, patient, indulgent and wise.

Old men are expected to:

— help educate their grandchildren.

— be clear-spoken, opinionated, stern and wise.

Pride can enter into Gender Roles when:

— you aren’t satisfied with the roles of your gender: you

want more freedom, or the roles of the other gender.

— you want someone of the other gender to act outside

her or his roles.

— you deny someone full access to her or his roles (by

locking your unmarried adult daughter in the house or

overprotecting your son, for instance).

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People, especially women, who want to transcend their

gender roles are sympathetic. Lots of good, interesting,

very satisfying conflict possibilities there.

3. Love, Sex, & Marriage

Here’s the Faith’s position on love, sex and

marriage:

— Between husband and wife, all sex and all love is

virtuous.

— Between two men or two women, no romantic love is

virtuous (although familial and comradely love can be) and

sex is a sin (and, coincidentally, a crime).

— Between two people married to others, no romantic

love is virtuous and sex is a sin.

— Between an unmarried man and a married woman,

no romantic love is virtuous and sex is a sin.

— Between a married man and an unmarried woman,

romantic love might be virtuous, and sex is a sin.

— Between an unmarried man and an unmarried

woman, romantic love is virtuous, and sex is probably a

sin.

Except in the unfortunate case of a husband and wife

who don’t love one another, sex is never virtuous without

love.

Now, see that “probably”? That’s because the King of

Life is, occasionally, a realist. Sometimes, when it matters,

He prefers a loving family to official recognition.

Especially because getting married isn’t just a Faith

thing. It’s also a Territorial Authority thing. Not all

people who should marry are able to, legally, be it because

of fees, corrupt Territorial representatives, or various

other difficulties — all the result of the unrighteousness

of the non-Faithful and the corruptness of the Territorial

Authority and the other religions.

Pride can enter into love, sex & marriage when:

— you demand the love of, or impose your love upon,

someone who doesn’t love you.

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— you act as though you love someone when you really

don’t.

— you consider your love to transcend sin and virtue,

like when you’re in love with someone inappropriate.

— you want sex, without considering love, virtue or sin.

— you pursue marriage with someone who reflects well

on you or who can advance you, not whom you love.

— you buy the affection and loyalty of your intended

spouse with money or prestige.

— you demand that your suitor buy your affection.

And you know? That stuff’s all rare bloody story meat.

4. Polygamy

Polygamy (technically polygyny; polyandry isn’t

allowed a’tall) is, in the Faith, a reward to men for long-

term service and dedication. No man under, say, 30 has a

second wife, and no man under 40 has a third (or fourth,

or fifth, or sixth...). To get official allowance to court a

woman after your first wife, you must:

— have been called upon by the King of Life to do so, as

confirmed by the person with Stewardship over you.

— be fulfilling the Stewardship of your office in the

Faith in an exemplary fashion (or have retired from a

lifetime of doing so).

— have a woman in mind.

— be able to support the addition to your family,

including the inevitable children and elder parents.

And pride can enter into Polygamy when:

— you consider polygamy to be your right, instead of a

reward you have to deserve.

— you think that you deserve polygamy when really you

just want it.

— you’re seeking a second or subsequent wife in order to

display your worthiness and faith.

— you’re a wife and you don’t welcome a righteous

subsequent wife.

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— you’re a second or subsequent wife and you resent the

wives before you.

— you put your relationships with your fellow wives over

your relationship with your husband.

— you’re pursuing or part of a polygamous marriage

unapproved by the Faith.

— you’re a wife who wants an additional husband.

Polygamy is love, sex etc. times two. Or more. It

puts people in complicated and high-pressure situations.

Problematic polygamy can drive your game.

5. Money

Nobody in the Faith should be hungry when someone

else is eating. The King of Life has said so, and it’s maybe

the Faith’s most constant struggle.

Pride can enter into money when:

— you think you deserve more than someone else.

— you don’t want to give up what you have when

someone else needs it more than you do.

— you exploit the poor to buy community respect.

And that’s pretty good story stuff, but, well, it just

ain’t sex.

Injustice

W

hen a person acts on pride, when a person’s pride

influences the workings of a community, injustice

inevitably results.

1. Money: Someone is hungry when someone else is

eating. Someone is cold when someone else has clothing

and shelter.

2. Role: Someone is prevented from fulfilling his or her

role in the community. A mother can’t care for her child, a

husband can’t protect his family, one laborer has to do the

work of two, a young man can’t court a young woman.

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3. Righteousness: Someone has to choose between sin

and suffering. A person must steal food or else go hungry.

A child must lie to his parents or else be beaten. A young

woman must see her fiancé behind her father’s back, or not

at all.

Sin

1.

Violence. It’s a sin to harm or kill another person,

unless you have just cause. Self defense and war are

just causes; “he slept with my wife” is not.

2. Sex. It’s a sin to have sex with someone you aren’t

married to, unless all of the following are true: your

marriage is ordained in Heaven, you’re prevented from

wedding by inescapable circumstances, and you wed as

soon as you are able.

3. Deceit. It’s a sin to lie, cheat, steal, or break

promises.

4. Disunity. It’s a sin to conspire against another

person or to profit from another person’s misfortune.

5. Blasphemy. It’s a sin to call upon the King of Life in

an unworshipful manner.

6. Apostasy. It’s a sin to worship the King of Life

in any way not according to the dictates of the Faith, to

call upon any god but the King of Life, or to turn to the

demons for favors.

7. Worldliness. It’s a sin to dress immodestly, to smoke

tobacco or drink hard liquor, to use vulgar language, to

sleep in the same room as an unbeliever, to gamble for

money, to work on a day set aside for worship, or to show

comfort in the presence of sin.

8. Faithlessness. It’s a sin to neglect the duties of your

office in the Faith.

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Demonic Attacks

T

he presence of sin opens a community to attacks

from Demons. Since demons are non-corporeal, the

demonic attacks take various material forms, some subtle,

some overt. The demons will assess the character of the

community and act on some or all of these goals: isolate

the community, endanger the community’s survival,

exacerbate the community’s injustices, prosper the

community’s sinners, oppress the community’s faithful.

The demons might see the PCs’ arrival as a threat or an

opportunity.

Should the specifics of the demons’ attacks follow from

the specifics of the sin? Maybe. Consider:

Brother Eleazer is having an affair with his neighbor’s

daughter, Sister Alise. a) The demons are able to attack

Brother Eleazer, Sister Alise, and nobody else. b) The

demons are able to attack Brother Eleazer, Sister Alise,

and both of their families, interests, and holdings. c) The

demons are able to attack anybody in town, except the

exceptionally righteous. d) The demons are able to attack

anybody in town, including the exceptionally righteous.

And consider:

Brother Eleazer is having an affair with his neighbor’s

daughter, Sister Alise. a) The demons’ attacks are

specifically sexual: inspiring lust, souring marital

relations. b) The demons’ attacks have to do with, y’know,

fertility: blighting crops or herds, making women barren

or too fecund. c) The demons’ attacks are all about

relationships: inspiring hate within families and between

friends, inspiring distrust between spouses. d) The

demons’ attacks might be anything.

Choose what’s best for this particular town. But

you should know: what you choose now will constrain

your choices later. Over time, your players will develop

expectations about the rules the demons follow — and

that’s good. Defy those expectations with caution.

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False Doctrine

S

in causes guilt. If I’m a habitual sinner, adopting a

false doctrine is a way to numb my conscience and

justify the sin.

Alternately, if I see someone else sinning but don’t see

anyone stepping in to correct the problem, I might conclude

that it’s my Steward at fault, or some other office holder of

the Faith. I might further conclude that there’s some flaw

in the Faith allowing the sin to continue. I might arrive at

a false doctrine that way.

False doctrines are always concrete. Here are some

examples:

The King of Life allows a woman to have more

than one husband.

Brother Parley is not the true branch Steward.

We should worship at the quarters of the moon,

not on the Sabbath.

The oldest son should not work with his

brothers, he should serve as a second father.

Marriage is a convenience; I need not marry my

lover.

God told me to kill him.

The Book of Life isn’t scripture but merely

human wisdom.

The Mountain People hold the true keys to

Heaven.

Corrupt Worship

T

he outward expression of false doctrine is false

worship and corrupt ceremony. Holding to a false

doctrine will corrupt your observances, even if — as in the

case of “God told me to kill him” — the false doctrine isn’t

especially related to them.

As the GM, it’s your job to create and present the

corrupt religious practices of your heretics.

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False Priesthood

S

o far everything has been individual. One person is

resentful of injustices, then commits sins, then adopts

weird beliefs. False Priesthood is when the heretic develops

a following. The followers may themselves be anywhere

on the continuum — they might be heretics in their own

right, they might just be sinners or proud, they might even

be humble and decent but misled. The point is that now the

heresy has the force of a (sub-)community behind it.

Sorcery

O

rganized worship has power. The power of an

organized heresy is that the demons will serve it.

The false priest is a sorcerer. He or she will have

demonic attendants — overt or covert, noticed or not.

Since the false priest necessarily wants, at heart, to bring

the congregation to ruin, the demons will give up their

own agenda and adopt the cult’s.

Members of a cult are also vulnerable to demonic

possession. The demons take control of the person’s will

and act through the person directly.

Look ahead to the chapter on NPCs for more about

sorcerers and possession.

Hate and Murder

A

nd here I’m talking about something way more

serious than passion and rage. Hate is an organized

and deadly assault on the Faithful by the demonic, made

wholly personal. Hate causes murder — and not the tidy

“just a sin” murder that a love triangle or stolen cattle will

cause. The murders that follow from false priesthood and

sorcery have an entirely different tenor. They’re senseless,

or ritualistic, or their victims are innocent, perhaps good

people who threaten the cult. When you dig into those

murders, you find occult significance, motives that don’t

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add up, dirt on the upstanding in the community. The

murder is the tip of something big and sinister and it

promises more murders to come or more murders already

done and covered up. When the Faithful murder the

Faithful, it means that things have gone as wrong as they

can go.

Procedure

Setup

B

efore you start in earnest, there are three things you’ll

want to be sure to get out of the process: some NPCs

with a claim to the PCs’ time, some NPCs who can’t ignore

the PCs’ arrival, and some NPCs who’ve done harm, but

for reasons anybody could understand. In the following

procedure I talk about whether the town “seems grabby

enough” and whether there are “enough NPCs to keep

the PCs busy” — those three things are what I’m talking

about.

It can also be very useful to bring a secular authority

figure into play, a person who represents the Territorial

Authority in some fashion. Since the needs of the

Territorial Authority are different from the needs of the

Faith, you can thereby introduce a person who a) has

legitimate reason to be involved in the situation, but b) is

working at cross-purposes to the Dogs.

You can also repeat steps if you want. A town might

have one situation going all the way up to murder, and a

second, unrelated situation still at the sin level, and then

four more budding prides. If I wanted a town to take more

than a session or two to sort out, that’s how I’d do it.

If you like, try starting with the step corresponding

with the level of wrongness you’d like the town to have,

and working backward. If it works, or if it spectacularly

doesn’t, write me! I’d love to hear about it.

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Step 1

1a: Pride. Scroll through the list of Pride problems

above. Choose whichever one jumps out at you. Attach a

name to it and write a (very short) paragraph.

1b: Injustice. Pride creates injustice. How is somebody

better off or worse off than everybody else, because

of the pride? Attach a name or names to it and write a

paragraph.

1c: If the situation seems grabby enough to you, which

it probably won’t but if it does, you can stop. Skip ahead to

step 6.

Step 2

2a: Sin. Unaddressed, injustice leads to sin. The

advantaged person becomes bold or the disadvantaged

person becomes resentful — either way, they break the

rules. Choose an appropriate sin from above, and choose

a sinner and a victim. Attach a name or names to it and

write a paragraph.

2b: Demonic Attacks. Sin allows the demons to attack

the town. What form does their attack take? Attach a

name or names to it and write a paragraph.

2c: The demons want the sin to become habitual.

2d: If you’ve got enough NPCs to keep the PCs busy

and you’re happy with the situation, you can stop. Skip

ahead to step 6.

Step 3

3a: False Doctrine. Habitual Sin and/or Demonic

Attacks create false doctrine. Either the sinner invents

false theology to justify the sin, or the victim or witness of

the attacks creates false doctrines to explain or repair what

seems to be a failure of the Faith. What’s the false tenet?

Attach names and write a paragraph.

3b: Corrupt Worship. False doctrine expresses itself

in bad religious practice or an incorrect use of ceremony.

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What’s the form it takes? Attach names and write a

paragraph.

3c: The demons want the false doctrine to win over

other people.

3d: If you’ve taken the situation as far as you want to,

you can stop. Skip ahead to step 6.

Step 4

4a: False Priesthood. When a corrupt worship has

three or more worshippers, it becomes a false priesthood.

Who is the cult leader and who are the cult? Attach names

and write a paragraph or two.

4b: Sorcery. A false priesthood commands the service

of the demons. What does the cult have the demons doing?

Attach names and write a paragraph or two.

4c: The demons want someone to kill someone, plus

they want whatever the cult wants.

4d: If you’re happy with the situation, you can stop.

Skip ahead to step 6.

Step 5

5a: Hate and Murder. Eventually someone kills

someone. The demons especially like it when a) the very

Faithful and b) possible threats get murdered. Attach

names to the murder and write a paragraph.

5b: Stop now, or repeat 5a until the situation is grabby

enough for you. Unresolved, murder leads to more murder.

Step 6

6a: What does each named person want from the

Dogs? Write a sentence or two for each.

6b: What do the demons want in general? What do

they want from the Dogs? What might they do? Write a

paragraph.

6c: If the Dogs never came, what would happen — that

is, what’s the next step up the “what’s wrong” ladder?

Write a sentence or two.

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You’re done!

Example One: the Boxelder Canyon

Branch.

Brothers Artax, Benjamin and Cadmus are the Dogs.

1a Pride: The Territorial Authority guy thinks he

deserves his living without working. He’s a Faithful who’s

been assigned to negligible civic duties — keeping census

info and reporting it annually — but he thinks that it’s

enough to warrant his family’s maintenance.

1b Injustice: Because he spends his time pestering

the town for more money instead of working, he, his wife

(Brother Artax’ aunt) and their children are dirt poor.

1c: I need more people and more grief. I keep going.

2a Sin: The Territorial Authority guy’s wife, Brother

Artax’ aunt, makes whiskey and sells it to the town’s

farmhands on the sly.

2b Demonic Attacks: The church meeting house

burned down. Brother Benjamin’s uncle was badly burned

in the fire. He’s healing but pissed off.

2d: The situation doesn’t seem baked yet. I keep going.

3a False Doctrine: Brother Benjamin’s burned uncle

blames the Steward for the fire, because the Steward’s

grandmother is a Mountain Person convert and she lives

in the Steward’s house. It’s dumb bigotry, but he’s decided

that the Steward’s Calling is invalid.

3b Corrupt Worship: Brother Benjamin’s burned

uncle has taken to ceremonially praying for the Steward’s

grandmother’s death.

3d: I’m happy with the situation, but I want to hook

Brother Cadmus in! How about Brother Cadmus’ younger

brother, a farmhand newly arrived in town. He’s listening

too hard to Brother Benjamin’s raving uncle: he’s a

potential convert to the potential cult. Good, all done. I

skip to step 6.

4, 5: skipped.

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6a the People:

— Brother Artax’ aunt, the Territorial Authority census

guy’s wife, wants the Dogs to stay out of her business. She

wants to keep her whiskey a secret.

— Brother Benjamin’s uncle wants the Dogs on his side

vs. the Steward.

— Brother Cadmus’ little brother wants the Dogs to

tell him who to trust, but not to tell him to stop drinking

whiskey.

— The Territorial Authority census guy wants the Dogs

to side with him, that he deserves to be paid a living wage

for his (negligible) civic office.

— The Steward wants the Dogs on his side vs. the uncle.

He especially wants to convince them that his grandmother

is a convert with no malice in her.

6b the Demons:

— The demons want the farmhands to join the cult.

They’ll attack the town where the Steward oughta be able

to protect it, and undermine his authority where they can.

— They want the Dogs to join with the uncle.

— They want the whiskey to stay secret.

— If the Dogs get close to the whiskey, the demons’ll

work overtime to implicate the Steward’s grandmother.

They’ll make it look like she’s using them to attack the

uncle — that’s a good twist!

6c If the Dogs Never Came:

— Sooner or later the cult would get its three members.

Then they’d overthrow the Steward, and the demons would

whisper to them that leaving him and his grandmother

alive is dangerous to them. Eventually, murder!

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Example Two: the Whitechurch

Branch.

Brothers Artax, Benjamin and Cadmus are the Dogs.

1a Pride: Brother Artax’ niece is resisting the

appropriate courtship of the Steward’s son, for no good

reason. She just doesn’t like him.

1b Injustice: Consequently, the Steward’s son has

become obsessed with her. He’s buying her more gifts

than he can afford, burdening his family.

2a Sin: The shopkeeper, not a Faithful, is marking

up his prices. He doesn’t consider it a sin to profit from

injustice, but it is one. He and his wife — Brother

Benjamin’s cousin, young, pretty, Faithful — are getting

way rich and are lording it over.

2b Demonic Attacks: The demons want to make the

situation worse, so they’re breaking tools and making

them wear out faster. Brother Cadmus’ aged uncle’s farm

is one of the worst hit. The old guy values his independence

— whether that’s Pride too is up in the air.

3, 4, 5: skipped.

6a the People:

— The Steward and his son want Brother Artax to talk

sense into his niece. The Steward would be content if he

talked sense into his son.

— The shopkeeper wants the Dogs to keep their noses

out. They’ll have to figure out how to deal with him given

that he’s not Faithful. (Is he a Spiritualist, an Atheist, a

Dogmatist or what? Wing it!)

— His wife, Brother Benjamin’s cousin, wants the Dogs

to assuage her guilt. She doesn’t especially want them to

convert him to the Faith — she loves him how he is.

— Brother Cadmus’ uncle wants the Dogs to stay

over and help him get his farm back together, “just this

harvest.”

— Brother Artax’ niece wants to marry Brother

Benjamin or Brother Cadmus.

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6b the Demons:

— The demons want to drive prices and demand up, up,

up!

— They want the Steward to pronounce that it’s okay for

the town to rob the store — which would be false doctrine.

— They want the Dogs to buy stuff, so they’ll try

to break their stuff too. They don’t want the Dogs to

pronounce that it’s okay for the town to rob the store —

because if the Dogs say it, it’s probably not false doctrine.

That’s what Dogs do, after all.

6c If the Dogs Never Came:

— eventually the Steward would declare the store to be

the congregation’s property and run the shopkeeper and

his wife out. The demons would keep applying scarcity

pressure — without the shopkeeper, how will the town

restock the store? — until it all blows up.

Example Three: the Tower Creek

Branch

Brothers Artax, Benjamin and Cadmus are the Dogs.

1a Pride: The branch Steward has just taken,

righteously, a second wife. His first wife, Sister Bethia

(Brother Artax’ cousin) is against it.

1b Injustice: Sister Bethia is monopolizing her

husband’s attention, manipulating him so that he has little

time for his new wife. By “time,” of course, I mean both

“sex” and “public regard.”

2a Sin: The new wife — Sister Edie — turns to the

town’s deputy sheriff, Brother Cyrus.

2b Demonic Attacks: The demons make Sister Edie

barren.

3a False Doctrine: Sister Edie thinks, correctly, that

she can’t conceive because of her infidelity. She concludes,

incorrectly, that she should marry her lover, Brother

Cyrus. She thinks that women of the Faith can have

multiple husbands.

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vii: Creating Towns

3b Corrupt Worship: She talks a third woman,

old Sister Wilhelmina (Brother Benjamin’s aunt) into

performing a secret wedding.

4a False Priesthood: Sister Edie, Brother Cyrus,

Sister Wilhelmina — that’s three! They’re a small cult but

they’re a cult. By performing the false wedding, Sister

Wilhelmina has established herself as the false prophet.

4b Sorcery: Sister Wilhelmina’s trying to sorcerously

restore Sister Edie’s fertility, by robbing other women of

theirs.

5a Hate and Murder: Sister Wilhelmina sorcerously

kills a child in the womb. Yesterday, the unborn baby was

healthy. Today, it’s stillborn.

6a the People:

— The Steward wants the Dogs to bless his second wife,

Sister Edie, to conceive.

— The Steward’s first wife, Sister Bethia, wants the

Dogs to prevail upon her husband to put aside Sister Edie.

— Brother Cyrus, the deputy sheriff, wants the Dogs to

solemnize his marriage to Sister Edie — he’s skeptical of

old Sister Wilhelmina’s authority.

— Sister Wilhelmina wants the Dogs to leave. As they

get closer to her, she’ll call upon the demons to protect her

and mislead them.

— The injured mother wants the Dogs to Name her

stillborn baby, because “he wasn’t meant to be born

dead.”

6b the demons:

— The demons want the Dogs to blame Sister Bethia,

the first wife, for the stillbirth. They’ll set her up as a

sorceress, even though she’s not one. Her Pride will be

obvious even without their help.

6c if the Dogs never came:

— Maybe the Steward could sort it all out and put it

right — but no, you know that Sister Wilhelmina would

talk poor Brother Cyrus into killing him first.

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Reflection

D

id your characters do a good thing? Is the town

better than when they arrived?

What did the events in the town reveal about

your characters? Whose character do you like better than

you did before? Whose don’t you like as well as you used

to?

What are you saying about people, in the actions of

your characters? Playing Dogs will raise questions about

duty, obedience, responsibility, sin, love — where do your

characters come down on the issues?

It’s also very appropriate for you to talk about the

experience of the game as players — what you liked and

didn’t like, what went well, where the action bogged and

where it was sharp.

Reflection Fallout

Choose one of these:

— Add 1 to one of your Stats.

— Create a new Trait at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Trait.

— Change the d-size of an existing Trait.

— Create a new Relationship at 1d6.

— Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Relationship.

— Change the d-size of an existing Relationship.

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viii: Between Towns

— Write a Belonging on your character sheet and give it

its usual dice.

This is exactly the same as the experience Fallout list,

so don’t let that throw you.

Whichever you choose, justify it by your character’s

experiences in the town you’re leaving.

In addition, choose one of these:

— Add any two dice to your unassigned Relationship

dice.

— Add 2d4 plus any one die to your unassigned

Relationship dice.

— Rewrite your coat’s description to reflect damage,

wear, repairs or replacement. Change your coat’s dice if it’s

called for.

— Choose again from the reflection / experience Fallout

list.

Direction

W

here do the characters go from here:

— To the next town on their assigned route?

— Back to the Dogs’ Temple, to make an accounting of

their service so far?

— Back to a previous town, to follow up?

— Home or elsewhere, abandoning their service?

GMing Between Towns

R

emember how, at the end of character creation, you

went “mmhmm” like the good doctor? Here’s where

you angle the game to hit those issues. In the town just

past, what were the characters about? What positions did

they take? Which sinners did they judge harshly, and

which did they show mercy? What did they say, I mean

really say, about themselves and others?

Your goal in the next town is to take the characters’

judgments and push them a little bit further. Say that in

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this past town, one of the characters came down clearly on

the side of “every sinner deserves another chance.” In the

next town, you’ll want to reply with “even this one? Even

this sinner?” Or say that another character demonstrated

the position that “love is worth breaking the rules for.”

You can reply with “is this love worth breaking the rules

for too? Is love worth breaking this rule for?”

But Dogs isn’t abstract or academic! This love, this

sinner, this law — those are real people, real characters

I mean, in real concrete situations. Create the people and

the situations, don’t pose the question in some sort of

theoretical way.

Most importantly, don’t have an answer already in

mind. GMing Dogs is a different thing from playing it.

Your job as the GM is to present an interesting social

situation and provoke the players into judging it. You don’t

want to hobble their judgments by arguing with them

about what’s right and wrong, nor by creating situations

where right and wrong are obvious. You want to hear your

players’ opinions, not to present your own.

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ix: Creating NPCs

A

n NPC has to have exactly the things a PC has:

Acuity, Body, Heart, and Will, all rated in d6s;

some Traits and some Relationships, rated in dice;

and some Belongings, rated in dice as usual (1d6 if it’s

normal, 1d8 if it’s big, 1d4 if it’s crap, plus 1d4 if it’s a gun,

etc.).

Proto-NPCs

H

owever, you don’t make your NPCs the way you

do PCs, one by one and with individual intention.

Instead, you make ’em in batches of six semi-formed proto-

NPCs, which you then flesh out when you need to, in play.

Like this:

1. Copy the NPC sheet from the back of the book or

make some boxes, lines and columns on a piece of paper.

2. Give your proto-NPCs Stats: roll 6d10. Each d10

gives you one proto-NPC’s Stats. Don’t name the proto-

NPCs, just give them Stats. Mix up which Stats get the

high numbers and which get the low. Here’s the table:

Roll Stats

Roll

Stats

1

4 3 2 2

6

4 4 4 3

2

4 3 3 2

7

5 4 4 3

3

4 4 3 2

8

5 5 4 3

4

5 4 3 2

9

6 5 4 3

5

5 5 3 2

10

6 5 5 4

(Remember that Stat dice are always d6s.)

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3. Give your proto-NPCs Traits: for each one, roll

4d8. Each d8 gives your proto-NPC dice for one Trait.

Don’t name the Traits now, just write down the dice.

Here’s the table:

Roll Trait

Roll

Trait

1

2d4

5

1d10

2

1d4

6

2d6

3

1d6

7

2d8

4

1d8

8

2d10

4. Give your proto-NPCs Relationships: for each

one, roll 2d10. Each d10 gives your proto-NPC dice for one

Relationship. Don’t name the Relationships now, just write

down the dice. Here’s the table:

Roll Relationship

Roll

Relationship

1

2d4

6

2d6

2

1d4

7

2d8

3

1d6

8

2d10

4

1d8

9

3d6

5

1d10

10

3d8

In addition, each proto-NPC, like everybody, gets this

Relationship: Blood 1d6.

5. Give your batch of proto-NPCs some Free Dice:

roll 3d6. Each d6 gives you some dice to assign to a Trait

or Relationship for some NPC in the batch, whenever in

play you want to. Write the dice down in the “Free Dice”

box at the top of your NPC sheet. Here’s the table:

Roll Free Dice

Roll

Free Dice

1

2d4

4

1d8

2

2d6

5

2d8

3

4d6

6

1d10

That’s it! Your proto-NPCs are made. Don’t do

anything else to them until you’re actually in the midst of

play.

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ix: Creating NPCs

An example of a proto-NPC:

Name: ______________________

Stats

Acuity: 3d6

Body: 2d6

Heart: 5d6

Will: 5d6

Traits

___________ 2d4

___________ 1d6

___________ 1d10

Relationships

Blood 1d6

___________ 2d6

___________ 1d8

All of the examples in this chapter are built on this

proto-NPC.

NPCs in Play

G

oing into a session of play, at one hand you have a

town prepared with a list of named people, each one

motivated toward or away from the incoming Dogs. At

the other hand you have a list of unnamed proto-NPCs,

each one with Stats and some undefined Traits and

Relationships. In play, easy! Put them together. A named

person plus an unnamed proto-NPC equals a whole NPC.

Until a person comes into a conflict, you don’t need to

know his dice a’tall. You can just play him along, based on

what you do know: what he wants, what he’s afraid of, how

he’s aligned with or against the PCs.

Then when he does come into a conflict, scan down your

available proto-NPCs and choose one that’ll do. Write his

name in the space for it and pick up his relevant Stat dice.

If it makes sense to name one or both of his Relationships

now, do, and pick up those dice too. You can name his

Traits now or when you need them. Give him Belongings

(with their usual dice) if it’s called for. And if you need to,

you can pull dice from your Free Dice to add to his Traits

or Relationships.

It obviously works just the same way for people you

didn’t name when you wrote up the town, but brought into

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ix: Creating NPCs

play to meet the needs of the moment. Choose a proto-

NPC and go to!

If you run out of proto-NPCs, just call a quick break

and make a new batch. It takes only a minute or three.

An example of an NPC:

Name: Brother Thaddeus

Stats

Acuity: 3d6

Body: 2d6

Heart: 5d6

Will: 5d6

Traits

Well-read 2d4

Wealthy 1d6

Good Shot 1d10

Argumentative 1d10

Relationships

Blood 1d6

Sr. Hannah 2d6

___________ 1d8

Groups

S

ometimes the PCs will get into a conflict with a group.

You don’t need Stats for each individual opponent!

Instead create the group as one NPC.

How many people are in the group? Each person in the

group gives the group +2d6 to its Stats, divvy as you see

fit. Go ahead and change them on your NPC sheet.

Who are the people in the group? Write each one — or

the notable ones if the group is large — as a Trait. First

fill out the Traits you already have dice for on the NPC

sheet. Then steal the NPC’s listed Relationship dice, unless

the group needs them for Relationships (which is up to you

to decide). Then you can pull as many of your Free Dice as

you can spare, and after that each additional person gets

1d6.

List people by their role in the group, not (just) by

name. That way it’ll be easy to tell when you incorporate

them into the group’s Raises and Sees, so you’ll know

when you get to roll their dice.

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ix: Creating NPCs

Assign any Fallout the group gets to individuals in

the group as plausible or, more likely, give Fallout to the

players for follow-up conflicts.

An example of a group:

Name: Brother Thaddeus’ 7 farmhands

Stats

Acuity: 7d6

Body: 10d6

Heart: 8d6

Will: 5d6

Traits

Clumsy 2d4

Bully 1d6

Steady 1d10

Brick 1d10

Ringleader 2d6

Schemer 1d8

Voice of Reason 1d6

Relationships

Br. Thaddeus 1d6

When an NPC helps a PC

When an NPC takes a PC’s side in a conflict from the

beginning, it’s exactly as though the NPC were joining a

group. Give the PC +2d6 to Stats, plus a Trait representing

the NPC’s role. You choose which Stats. For the Trait, pull

from your Free Dice or make it 1d6, it’s up to you.

When an NPC comes suddenly to a PC’s side in a

conflict in progress, treat the NPC as an improvised tool.

See chapter 4 for the details.

Possessed People

A

possessed person must be either a) a willing, knowing

heretic, that is a believer in false doctrine, but possibly

acting alone; or else b) a sinner within the false priesthood

of a Sorcerer. In the latter case the Sorcerer has to

perform a ritual to make the possession happen, but the

possessed person needn’t be willing or informed.

Anyhow, assign one of the possessed person’s

Relationships to a demon. The number of dice in the

Relationship indicates how chronically the person has been

possessed.

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ix: Creating NPCs

Choose a number of Manifestations equal to the

number of dice: Changes in body shape, changes in hands,

changes in facial features, changes in hair nails or teeth,

changes in eyes.

Choose a number of Powers equal to the number of

dice:

— Cunning: Apply the Relationship to every social

conflict.

— Ferocity: Apply the Relationship to every physical

conflict.

— Preservation: When the possessed person Takes a

Blow, take one fewer Fallout dice than normal.

— Viciousness: The possessed person inflicts Fallout

one die size higher than usual. Punches do damage like

blunt weapons, blunt weapons like edged weapons, edged

weapons like guns. It still maxes at d10.

A Dog in conflict with a possessed person can use

ceremony to See or Raise.

An example of a possessed person:

Name: Sister Hannah

Stats

Acuity: 3d6

Body: 2d6

Heart: 5d6

Will: 5d6

Traits

Sinner 2d4

Destitute 1d6

Beautiful 1d10

Black Hair 1d10

Relationships

Blood 1d6

A Demon 2d6

Br. Thaddeus 1d8

Manifestations

My hair moves even without wind.

My pupils reflect light like a cat’s.

Powers

Cunning

Preservation

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Sorcerers

A

false prophet — that is, a believer in false doctrines

who’s developed a following — is automatically a

sorcerer, even if he or she doesn’t realize it. The demons

attend to all false prophets and do their will. That being

the case, sometimes you’ll use a sorcerer’s special abilities

in a conflict, but have the sorcerer himself deny that

anything non-normal is happening.

Give the sorcerer a Relationship to a demon at four dice

of your choice, above and beyond the Relationships listed

for the NPC.

A sorcerer can:

— Call on the demons. Add the current Demonic

Influence to his preferred side of any conflict, as though it

were a Trait, by introducing demonic special effects into a

See or Raise.

— Become possessed at will (getting access, thereby, to

all the powers available to a possessed person).

— Perform rituals to invite demons to possess his

followers.

A Dog in conflict with a sorcerer can use ceremony to

See and Raise.

An example of a Sorcerer:

Name: Brother Calvin

Stats

Acuity: 3d6

Body: 2d6

Heart: 5d6

Will: 5d6

Traits

Patient 2d4

Alert 1d6

Aggrieved 1d10

Imposing 1d10

Relationships

Blood 1d6

The Dogs 2d6

A Demon 4d8

___________ 1d8

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ix: Creating NPCs

Demons?

D

emons don’t ever get Stats or Traits or anything.

Demons act in the world only through situations’

Demonic Influence and people’s Relationships to them.

They contribute dice to conflicts in only two circumstances:

Spiritual Opposition: Whenever a PC tries to

accomplish something that calls for a conflict, but there’s

no clear opponent, roll 4d6+Demonic Influence. This

doesn’t really depend on an individual demon, it’s just how

it works.

It’s the same when a PC launches a conflict with a

demon directly: 4d6+Demonic Influence.

Sorcery & Possession: As I’ve described.

In no case is any particular demon more powerful or

more intent than any other. All demons are faceless and

equal, except as empowered by a town’s sin or individual

sinners.

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ix: Creating NPCs: Recap

Names

S

ome appropriate female names you might not think of:

Abiah

Cornelia

Mindwell

Adelaide

Damaris

Obedience

Adelia

Edwina

Patience

Adeliza

Electa

Permelia

Alexanderina

Eliphal

Phidelia

Almena

Emeline

Philomena

Althea

Fidelia

Prudence

Asenath

Hester

Relief

Augusta

Honora

Submit

Azubah

Kesiah

Sybrina

Bedelia

Lavina

Temperance

Bethia

Louvina

Theodosia

Clementine

Malvina

Tryphena

Cleophas

Marilla

Tryphosia

Constance

Mehetable

Waitstill

S

ome appropriate male names you might not think of:

Abijah

Eleazer

Micajah

Archibald

Elijah

Nathaniel

August

Hamilton

Newton

Azariah

Hezekiah

Obediah

Bartholomew

Hiram

Phineas

Cornelius

Jackson

Pleasant

Cuthbert

Jedediah

Thaddeus

Cyrus

Jeduthan

Theophilus

Derrick

Josiah

Virgil

Ebenezer

Malachi

Wiley

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ix: Creating NPCs: Recap

Recap

Before Play

Create 6 proto-NPCs at a time. For each, roll 1d10 for

Stats, 4d8 for Traits, and 2d10 for Relationships, plus roll

3d6 for Free Dice for the whole batch:

Roll Stats

Trait

Relationship Free Dice

1

4 3 2 2

2d4

2

4 3 3 2

1d4

2d6

3

4 4 3 2

1d6

4d6

4

5 4 3 2

1d8

5

5 5 3 2

1d10

2d8

6

4 4 4 3

2d6

1d10

7

5 4 4 3

2d8

--

8

5 5 4 3

2d10

--

9

6 5 4 3

--

3d6

--

10

6 5 5 4

--

3d8

--

In Play

When you need dice for an NPC, choose whichever one

fits best. Assign Traits, Relationships and Belongings as

called for. Pull in Free Dice if you want.

Groups

Each person in the group a) gives the group NPC +2d6

to Stats, and b) is a Trait.

Possessed people

Choose a number of Manifestations and a number

of Powers equal to the number of dice in the person’s

Relationship with the demon.

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x: How To GM

Play the town

Y

ou made a town, right, you’ve got some NPCs, and

each and every one of them wants something from

the PCs. Right? So play them!

Don’t play the PCs. Present the PCs with choices — by

which I mean, have your NPCs come to them and ask

them to do things, fix things, take care of things, make it

right, make it better, tell them it’s not their fault, tell them

they’re in the right, tell them not to worry — then back

waaay off. “Sister Abigail comes to you and asks you to

marry her to her lover, Brother Ezekiel. Yes, they’ve been

having an illicit affair and he’s already married. What do

you do?”

Provoke the players to have their characters take action,

then: react! Whatever the PCs do, your NPCs have to

adjust to it. Figure out what they want now — it should be

easy, they want what they always wanted — and have ’em

work toward it.

Don’t play “the story.” The choices you present to the

PCs have to be real choices, which means that you can’t

possibly know already which way they’ll choose. You can’t

have plot points in mind beforehand, things like “gotta get

the PCs up to that old cabin so they can witness Brother

Ezekiel murdering Sister Abigail...” No. What if the

PCs reconcile Brother Ezekiel and Sister Abigail? You’ve

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x: How to GM

wasted your time. Worse, what if, because you’ve invested

your time, you don’t let the PCs reconcile them?

You’ve robbed the players of the game.

You can’t have a hero and a villain among your NPCs.

It’s the PCs’ choices that make them so. The PCs are

empowered to turn sin into goodness sake doctrine if they

think it’s the right thing to do. How are you gonna decide

up front who comes out on top?

All I’m saying is, the PCs’ stories aren’t yours to write

and they aren’t yours to plan. If you’ve GMed many other

roleplaying games, this’ll be the hardest part of all: let go

of “what’s going to happen”. Play the town. Play your

NPCs. Leave “what’s going to happen” to what happens.

How, though? Here’s how:

Drive play toward conflict

E

very moment of play, roll dice or say yes.

If nothing’s at stake, say yes to the players,

whatever they’re doing. Just plain go along with them. If

they ask for information, give it to them. If they have their

characters go somewhere, they’re there. If they want it, it’s

theirs.

Sooner or later — sooner, because your town’s

pregnant with crisis — they’ll have their characters

do something that someone else won’t like. Bang!

Something’s at stake. Launch the conflict and roll the dice.

Roll dice or say yes. Roll dice or say yes. Roll dice or

say yes.

Actively reveal the town

in play

T

he town you’ve made has secrets. It has, quite likely,

terrible secrets — blood and sex and murder and

damnation.

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x: How to GM

But you the GM, you don’t have secrets a’tall. Instead,

you have cool things — bloody, sexy, murderous, damned

cool things — that you can’t wait to share.

There’s this interesting hump I have to get over every

time I GM Dogs — maybe it’ll go away eventually. It’s like

this:

The PCs arrive in town. I have someone meet them.

They ask how things are going. The person says that, well,

things are going okay, mostly. The PCs say, “mostly?”

And I’m like “uh oh. They’re going to figure out what’s

wrong in the town! Better stonewall. Poker face: on!” And

then I’m like “wait a sec. I want them to figure out what’s

wrong in the town. In fact, I want to show them what’s

wrong! Otherwise they’ll wander around waiting for me

to drop them a clue, I’ll have my dumb poker face on, and

we’ll be bored stupid the whole evening.”

So instead of having the NPC say “oh no, I meant that

things are going just fine, and I shut up now,” I have the

NPC launch into his or her tirade. “Things are awful! This

person’s sleeping with this other person not with me, they

murdered the schoolteacher, blood pours down the meeting

house walls every night!”

...Or sometimes, the NPC wants to lie, instead. That’s

okay! I have the NPC lie. You’ve watched movies. You

always can tell when you’re watching a movie who’s lying

and who’s telling the truth. And wouldn’t you know it,

most the time the players are looking at me with skeptical

looks, and I give them a little sly nod that yep, she’s lying.

And they get these great, mean, tooth-showing grins

— because when someone lies to them, ho boy does it not

work out.

Then the game goes somewhere.

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x: How to GM

Follow the players’ lead

about what’s important

Y

ou present an interesting situation to your players, a

town. It’s got a couple few conflicts already present

in it, each with at least two sides, some facets and nuances

to the moral questions it poses. You’ve made this cool,

interesting thing, this town and its problems, so you show

it to your players like, “look! What do you think?”

Then you step back and wait to hear what they think

— and I shouldn’t suggest that you have to actually wait

at all. The truth is that they start taking sides the instant

you start showing them what the sides are. It’s immediate

and visceral.

If you’ve GMed other games, you’ve probably had this

experience: You say, “...and the super villain reveals his

plan, which is to use armored laser sharks to destroy the

world!”

Your first player says, “dude, Mr. Johnson didn’t hire

me to save the world, he just hired me to find his brother. I

go back and tell him his brother’s dead.”

Your second player says, “I’m still talking to the pool

girl, remember?”

And your third player’s reading your old White Wolf

magazines.

It’s suck. But you’re not going to get that with Dogs,

and here’s why: you haven’t created a super villain.

There’s not a plot the PCs have to foil. You’re not providing

judgment for the players the way you have to if you’ve pre-

decided who the villain is. Instead, you’ve presented your

interesting moral situation, the PCs can’t walk away from

it, they have to cut through its knot somehow and leave the

town better off. So, what do they think?

They’ll surprise you. They’ll take sides you never

expected. People just endlessly delight me and one of

the reasons they do is because of their capacity to take

surprising sides. Watch, you’ll see.

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Escalate, Escalate, Escalate

D

oes that mean that you just, y’know, sit? And

watch? Not in the least. When the players take sides

— from the first moment they begin to take sides — start

complicating their lives.

It works exactly the same as it works between towns,

but moment-to-moment instead of episode-to-episode.

The dialog of play is all “my character does this, your

character does this, they find this, this person ambushes

them and starts shooting, this person shifts her eyes

sideways and you can tell she’s lying, what do you do?

Where do you go now? What do you do then?” Just like

any other roleplaying game. But if you take a step up from

that, you’ll see that the conversation’s about something.

It’s about the moral judgments the players make on the

situations you present. In the midst of conflict, you should

be thinking, “really? Even now? Even now? Really?”

In concrete terms, this point and the point before are

about setting conflicts’ stakes. The point before says: let

the players set the stakes. This point says: then, you set the

stakes harder.

Here’s an example:

I’m the GM. I present to my players a situation: Brother

Cadmus’ little brother wants the Dogs to tell him who to

trust, but not to tell him to stop drinking whiskey. Brother

Cadmus and Meg, his player, have noticed that there’s

something he’s not saying, but they don’t know what yet.

Meg has Brother Cadmus say, “I can’t tell you who to

trust until you tell me what’s really going on.”

I say, “Sweet! Let’s roll some dice. What’s at stake is,

does he spill?” Notice that even though I’m the one who

said what’s at stake, Meg’s the one who chose it.

We roll dice, Raise and See back and forth, and

(unsurprisingly) Brother Cadmus is winning.

Now it’s my turn to set the stakes harder. How badly

do Meg and her character want to know? I say, “he says,

‘y’know Cad, I come to you for advice and you grill me.

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x: How to GM

Isn’t that just like you.’ He shoves past you. I’m escalating

to physical.” I roll some more dice. Meg has to choose:

does her character physically stop him from leaving, or

give? How far is she willing to go for this? What if he

throws a punch, will she still be willing to push him?

Let’s say that yes, she’s willing to fight him for it.

Then, what if he’s beating her? Will she have Brother

Cadmus draw on his own brother?

DO NOT have a solution in

mind

I

f you have a solution in mind, the game rules are going

to mess you up bad.

I hope I’ve made that clear enough. If you’re GMing

by the rules, you have absolutely no power to nudge things

toward your desired outcome. It’s best for everybody,

I mean especially it’s best for you too, if you just don’t

prefer one outcome to another.

Your job is to present the situation and then escalate

it. The players’ job is to pronounce judgment and follow

through. The solution is born of the two in action.

Playing God?

I

n most RPGs with religious content, the GM arbitrates

the characters’ morality. The GM plays God (or the

gods) as an NPC, giving and withholding moral standing

— whatever form it takes in the particular game: Faith

Points, Alignment Bonuses, whatever — based on the

characters’ actions. Not in Dogs.

In Dogs, the GM has no opportunity to pass effective

judgment on a PC’s actions. Talk about ’em, sure, but

never come down on them as righteous or sinful in a way

that’s binding in the game world. The GM can’t give or

withhold dice for the state of a PC’s soul, and thus never

needs to judge it.

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x: How to GM

Which is good! Which is, in fact, essential. If you, the

GM, can judge my character’s actions, then I won’t tell

you what I think. I’ll play to whatever morality you impose

on me via your rulings. Instead of posing your players

an interesting ethical question and then hearing their

answers, you’d be posing the question and then answering

it yourself.

How dull would that be.

Some Actual Play

H

ere’s how it works out. This is from one of the game’s

very earliest playtest sessions.

Setup: Brothers Artax and Cadmus are the Dogs,

played by Tom and Meg, respectively. The branch

Steward, Brother Malachi, is having an affair with Brother

Cadmus’ 15-year-old cousin Avigail. Brother Artax’ aunt

Elsa is best friends with Brother Malachi’s wife Judith.

Sisters Elsa and Judith and Brother Malachi all feel

that Brother Malachi deserves, because he’s such a good

Steward, to be allowed by the Faith to marry Avigail.

Avigail is having sex with him willingly, but becoming

his trophy isn’t what she wants for her life — she’s in love

with a boy named Jonas. But whether Brother Malachi

deserves her as his second wife or not, they’re sinning and

that gives demons access to the town. The demons want

to maintain the status quo — inevitably, their affair will

spawn some sort of false doctrine, probably where they’ll

marry without the approval of the Faith and Brother

Malachi will become a breakaway cult leader. Maybe,

because he’s well-liked by the town, bringing the whole

blessed congregation away with him.

So that’s where we start and from that, I know how to

play the NPCs. Brother Malachi is charming and effective,

with just enough pride to make Meg and Tom suspicious

but not enough to give him away. Sister Elsa will try to

get Brother Artax’ buy-in on the whole “Brother Malachi

deserves a second wife” thing, and in the process give away

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x: How to GM

that he has Avigail in mind. Sister Avigail will be willing

to talk about Jonas but will try to hide her affair with

Brother Malachi. (I improvised: Jonas is delighted and

taken aback to hear from Brother Cadmus that Avigail

has a thing for him, which I believe swayed the outcome-

choices Meg and Tom made. If I’d made him a jerk, they’d

have been a lot less sympathetic to her hopes, I think.)

Outcome: Brothers Artax and Cadmus fend off a

possessed attacker, confront the principles, spill to Jonas

that Avagail’s in love with him, figure out (in a satisfying,

shared “aha!” moment crossing two separate scenes) who’s

having sex with whom, and then bundle Brother Malachi

and Sister Judith up and send them off to Bridal Falls City.

They tell a convenient little lie to the branch that Brother

Malachi’s been such a good Steward that he’s being Called

to greater duties. It’s important to Meg and Tom that

Jonas not hear about the affair, to give Avigail the chance

with him that she wants, so they can’t risk shunning

Brother Malachi or making his crime public. (Funny how

they thought of it as “his” crime, when there were two of

them in the bed...)

Later, Tom wrote me and said “Yeah, but your

description implied that she was only doing it because he

was the Steward and it was cast specifically as ‘Brother

Malachi is abusing his position.’ So it was a pretty natural

progression.” In fact, in my description all I’d done

is emphasize that he wasn’t raping her. Meg and Tom

between them had judged Brother Malachi so immediately

and so viscerally that they thought his guilt was

objective and foregone. And then they lied to the whole

congregation to protect a possible future between Avigail

and Jonas!

Isn’t that fascinating? And unbelievably cool? Friend,

that’s why I play this game.

147

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xi: Design Notes

Resources

I

’ve watched, as you would guess, one million Westerns.

You should watch a bunch too, plus some Samurai

flicks. Most of them won’t be quite right, though: the

protagonists usually want to be left alone, but get dragged

into things despite themselves. Crime flicks are better for

protagonists who come into a situation ready to pronounce

judgment.

The Quick and the Dead is an exception. Ellen’d make a

Dog.

Tombstone is interesting for the way the principle

townspeople fall all over themselves to line up with or

against Wyatt Earp. NPCs in Dogs act that way.

You can’t go wrong with the Man Who Shot Liberty

Valance.

Or High Plains Drifter. Man.

Good non-Westerns with Dogs-like stories: LA

Confidential. Devil in a Blue Dress. The Untouchables.

Definitely watch Green Snake for inspiration if you’re

playing a high-supernatural game. A Chinese Ghost Story

too.

But of ’em all, Brigham City, a little indie flick by

Richard Dutcher, is the most exactly right. When you

watch it, consider that when Wes Clayton’s the bishop, he’s

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xi: Design Notes

the branch Steward, and when he’s the sheriff, he’s the

Dogs.

<a href="http://www.brighamcitythemovie.com" target="_blank">www.brighamcitythemovie.com</a>

The ideal Dogs in the Vineyard soundtrack includes

some Johnny Cash, Slaid Cleaves, Dave Carter and Tracy

Grammer, Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett, the Stone Coyotes,

and Cordelia’s Dad (of the later shaped-note sort). Strike

a balance between spirituals and murder ballads, and be

sure to include “the Man Comes Around.”

If you’d like to learn more about the LDS church, you

can visit its official site:

For a (much) more critical picture, try:

<a href="http://www.lds-mormon.com" target="_blank">www.lds-mormon.com</a>.

And I’ve got a bunch of online resources going, from

reenactment catalogs to old maps to landscape photos to

“how a revolver works.” Surf to:

<a href="http://www.lumpley.com" target="_blank">www.lumpley.com</a>

Comment: Relationships vs.

Traits vs. Things

T

he reason that the character background options

aren’t balanced across Relationships and Traits is

that the two things serve very different purposes in the

game. Your Traits contribute to how conflicts go, but your

Relationships contribute to what conflicts are about. When

you take “I’m a good shot” as a Trait, you’re saying that

you want to resolve conflicts by shooting. When you take

a Relationship with a person, you’re saying that you want

to be in conflict with him or her.

You drive a conflict, moment to moment, toward

your Traits. You drive the game, scene by scene, toward

your Relationships. When you choose your character’s

background, you’re prioritizing: do you want more input

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xi: Design Notes

into how conflicts turn out, or more input into which

conflicts?

Make sense? That’s why you get more Relationship dice

than Trait dice across the board. Input into which conflicts

is more important in the game overall.

Belongings, then, are just super-narrow Traits. I

like it when my players put big dice in their Belongings,

especially their weapons — every die in a weapon is a

temptation to hurt someone.

Adapting the Faith

T

he Faith I’ve presented is based on early Mormonism.

It may be that you want to play Dogs but the LDS and

Utah flavor doesn’t do it for you. That’s fine; adapting the

game to other religions is quite easy.

The Faith has a pretty much normal set of moral codes:

don’t do violence to one another, don’t sleep around, don’t

lie, cheat, steal, break promises, conspire against one

another, or profit from another’s misfortune. It has the

standard religious ones: worship the correct god in the

correct way, don’t turn to demons or false gods for favors.

It also has a handful of “avoid the appearance of sin” and

“separate people” ones: modesty rules, including who’s

allowed to be alone with whom, who’s allowed to touch

whom, what people are allowed to wear; consumption

rules, dietary rules; and random conduct rules of the “no

swearing” sort (although what’s “swearing” and what isn’t

might still be working itself out, socially).

The laws of the Territorial Authority are based on the

same core moral code: don’t do violence to one another,

don’t sleep around, don’t lie, cheat, steal, etc. The thing

is, being made by the corrupt and decadent, the legal

interpretation of the code differs from the Faithful

interpretation in at least one key way. Maybe multiple

marriage is allowed by the law but prohibited by the Faith.

Maybe ritual tattooing is considered “violence” by the law

but “correct worship” by the Faith.

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xi: Design Notes

So but within that framework, you can totally play

around with the specifics. Does your Faith’s understanding

of “don’t sleep around” permit or prohibit multiple

marriage? Do its consumption rules permit or prohibit

eating pork? What arrangements constitute “conspiring

against one another” or “profiting from another’s

misfortune”? What makes “correct worship”? When are

the holy days and what do you do on them? Come to think

of it, is “the King of Life” God (if so, YHWH, Jehovah, or

Allah?), or Jesus, or the head of a Pantheon, or the Earth,

or what? Are “false gods” gods who don’t exist, or real

gods we oughta not be worshipping?

If you want to play Dogs with some other religious

flavor, simply rewrite the Problems in the Faith section

in the town creation rules to suit your religion of choice,

and change the Elements of Ceremony to match.

Consider:

— Seventeenth-century Massachusetts, with the PCs as

witch finders.

— Thirteenth century Europe with the PCs as

Dominican inquisitors, the black and white Hounds of

God.

— A modern-day mob game, replacing the Faith with

the Mafia’s codes of silence and loyalty, with the PCs as

enforcers.

— Or a game about the Untouchables, with the Law

instead of the Faith, and the PCs as Eliot Ness and his

people!

Any of those sounds interesting and fun to me.

Thanks

T

his game owes such a debt to Ron Edwards I can’t even

tell you. I mean, it’d probably be a better game if it

were a Sorcerer mini-supplement, that’s how much. It’s also

heavily influenced by Trollbabe, as I’m sure you can see.

<a href="http://www.sorcerer-rpg.com" target="_blank">www.sorcerer-rpg.com</a>

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xi: Design Notes

I got inspiration for the dice mechanic from the Riddle

of Steel: what would happen, I said to myself, if you were

to roll the dice before you divvied them between attack and

defense?

<a href="http://www.theriddleofsteel.net" target="_blank">www.theriddleofsteel.net</a>

Universalis inspired my approach to Traits and

Relationships in a big way.

<a href="http://www.ramshead.com" target="_blank">www.ramshead.com</a>

I’m not the first guy to use poker terms in an RPG’s

resolution rules. Neither was Matt Snyder, but I’d be

remiss if I didn’t mention Dust Devils. If you’re after a

straight Western, no religious emphasis, Dust Devils is the

one.

<a href="http://www.chimera.info" target="_blank">www.chimera.info</a>

I’m also not the first guy to quantify relationships as

character effectiveness. Trollbabe does, My Life with Master

by Paul Czege does, I’m positive that many others do, and

I understand that Hero Quest is grandmother to us all.

<a href="http://www.trollbabe.com" target="_blank">www.trollbabe.com</a>

<a href="http://www.halfmeme.com" target="_blank">www.halfmeme.com</a>

<a href="http://www.heroquest.com" target="_blank">www.heroquest.com</a>

Without the conversations and game designs at the

Forge, this game would never have existed.

<a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com" target="_blank">www.indie-rpgs.com</a>

Jared Sorensen demonstrated, and Tom Russell

explained to me, the difference between growth and

achievement in Character Creation.

Luke Crane released me from an obligation so I could

get this thing done.

Brennan Taylor ran the first ever independent playtests,

with Jason Ang, James Hall, John Hall, Michelle Malloy,

Caitilin Taylor and Krista White.

My local playtesters were Meg Baker, Carrie Bernstein,

Emily Care Boss, Bruce Klotz, Jodi Levine, Joshua

Newman, Tony Page and Tom Russell.

Special thanks to:

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Everybody who read and participated in conversations

about the game in my LiveJournal, my soopaseekrit

playtest forum, and the lumpley games forum at the Forge.

Emily Care Boss for doing game design with me.

LeEarl Baker, Lillian Baker, Ben Lehman, Scott

Martin, Brennan Taylor, and Jonathan Walton for their

critical comments on my earliest manuscript. Without

them, the game would suck twice as bad.

Jake Norwood for his insight into the Dogs’ initiation.

Carl Rigney for taking a year’s worth of me saying

whatever came into my head and catching out of it the few

things worth repeating.

Certain of my family members for their forbearance (I

hope, I dearly hope) when they see the unpleasant use to

which I’ve put their likenesses.

Ron Edwards and Kieth Senkowski for a couple very

useful conversations about illustrations.

Kreg Moser and Darrell Langley for inspirational

sketches.

Drew Baker for the fantastic cover art.

Ed Heil for his excellent interior art.

Joshua Newman for the layout guidance and the puttin’

up with.

And extra special thanks to Meg, who is sleeping on

the couch nearby right now, and who played mechanics

with me before there was even a game, who read every

word of this before anybody else, and who even wrote a

word or ten too.

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Rules Index

—Resolving Conflicts—

Overview

53

Recap

79

What’s at stake?

54

Set the stage

55

Roll Stat Dice

55, 60

Non-physical: Acuity & Heart

Physical: Body & Heart

Fighting: Body & Will

Gunfighting: Acuity & Will

Escalating

60

Roll Relationship Dice

55, 68

With your opponent

With what’s at stake

Raise & See

57

In best roll order

Raise with 2 dice

See with 1 die: Reverse the Blow

See with 2 dice: Block or Dodge

See with 3 dice: Take the Blow

Roll Trait Dice

61

When you incorporate the Trait into a Raise or a See

Roll a Thing’s Dice

61

When you incorporate the thing into a Raise or a See

Giving

64

Cut your losses

Follow-up Conflicts

67

Multiple Opponents

69

Helping One Another

72

NPCs helping PCs

63, 68, 129

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Rules Index

—Things’ Dice—

Assigning dice

27

Normal: 1d6

Big: 1d8

High Quality: 2d6

Big & High Quality: 2d8

Crap: 1d4

Guns: +1d4

—Elements of Ceremony—

Description & Application

40, 73

Anointing with Sacred Earth (d8 Fallout)

Calling by Name (d4 Fallout)

Invoking the Ancients (d4 Fallout)

Laying on Hands (d6 Fallout)

Making the Sign of the Tree (d6 Fallout)

Reciting the Book of Life (d4 Fallout)

Singing Praise (d6 Fallout)

Three in Authority (d8 Fallout)

—Fallout—

When you Take the Blow

58, 64

Roll Fallout Dice equal to the number of dice you used to See

Fallout Dice

58

Non-physical: d4s

Physical: d6s

Weapon: d8s

Gunshot: d10s

Ceremonial: per Elements of Ceremony

NPCs’ Fallout

67

If nobody cares, give the players the NPCs’ two highest rolled

Fallout Dice for their side of the follow-up conflict

Short-term Fallout

64

Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats for your next

conflict

Take a new trait rated 1d4 for your next conflict

Change the dice of one of your character’s relationships to d4s for

your next conflict

Have your character leave the scene and spend some time alone.

Only choose this if no one launches a follow-up conflict

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Rules Index

Long-term Fallout

65

Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats

Take a new Trait at 1d4

Take a new Relationship at 1d4

Add 1d to an existing d4 Trait or Relationship

Subtract 1d from an existing d6+ Trait or Relationship

Change the die size of an existing Trait or Relationship to d4.

Erase a Belonging from your character’s sheet.

Rewrite your coat to include permanent damage. Reduce your

coat’s dice appropriately

Experience Fallout

66

Add 1 to one of your Stats

Create a new Trait or Relationship at 1d6

Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Trait or Relationship

Change the die size of an existing Trait or Relationship

Write a Belonging on your character sheet and give it its usual

dice.

Reflection Fallout

121

Choose once from Experience Fallout

Choose one of these:

Add any 2 dice to your Unassigned Relationship Dice

Add 2d4 plus any 1 die to your Unassigned Relationship Dice

Rewrite your coat to reflect repairs or replacement. Change your

coat’s dice appropriately

Choose again from Experience Fallout

—How to GM—

Play the town

137

Drive play toward conflict

Reveal the town in play

Follow the players’ lead

Escalate, escalate, escalate

Don’t have a solution in mind

Don’t play God

Roll dice or say yes.

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—Something’s Wrong—

Overview

97

Pride

98

Enacted, creates Injustice

106

Sin

107

Allows Demonic Attacks

107

False Doctrine

109

Creates Corrupt Worship

110

False Priesthood

110

Is Sorcery

111

Hate & Murder

111

—Between Towns—

Players: Reflection Fallout

121

GM: Prepare the next town

122

—Creating NPCs—

Proto-NPCs

125

NPCs in play

127

Groups

128

Possessed people

129

Sorcerers

130

Demons

132

Names

134

If you don’t know what to do right now, check the

outline on pages 93-96.

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Dogs in the Vineyard

Dogs

Vineyard

in

the

Name:

Background:

—Stats—

{ }

—dice—

Acuity:

Body:

Heart:

Will:

—Traits—

{ }

—dice—

—Relationships—

{ }

—dice—

Blood: 1d6

{ }

-available-

—Belongings—

Coat:

{

—Fallout—

}

—character sheet—

{

—Traits—

}

Dogs

Vineyard

in

the

—npc sheet—

{

—Relationships—

}

Acuity:

Body:

Heart:

Will:

Name:

—•—

{

—Traits—

}{

—Relationships—

}

Acuity:

Body:

Heart:

Will:

Name:

—•—

{

—Traits—

}{

—Relationships—

}

Acuity:

Body:

Heart:

Will:

Name:

��

ADVENTURES

��

Dog-

eared

Designs

��

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