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In Short
Dogs in the Vineyard provides an interesting set of mechanics for deciding when something is important enough to fight over, and what is at risk in that conflict. Players take on the role of religious gunslingers who move from community to community fighting evil and upholding everything that is good. While the setting is fantasy (as in not real), with a variable amount of the mystical, the game heavily borrows from Mormon beliefs and pre-statehood Utah. More than any other RPG this one has a strong western, as in the gritty west, feel to it.
Those who enjoy inventive rules systems, letting the dice fall where they may, and episodic games will likely enjoy Dogs in the Vineyard.
The Physical Thing
This 156 page black and white book showcases average production standards. This book was produced by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society to look and feel like an old timey book, and they did a good job. So whether or not the production qualities are great is highly subjective. It has the look and feel of an older book, even with black and white scenes that evoke images of life in Utah many years ago.
It’s smaller than a typical RPG book, but larger than a paperback novel. The formatting and font use is good, but simple. The margins are a little large on the large side. The book does generally feel fragile. On the plus side, the old timey way the book is constructed oozes flavor.
The Ideas
The Dogs are young people who belong to The Faith and have been cast out into the world to fight evil and uphold virtue. They travel from community to community, where they unearth the sins of that community and otherwise set things right. In the process they grow and change based upon what happens to them in their journeys.
Mechanically the game makes use of several interesting ideas. First, stakes are determined by the participants before a conflict begins. Stakes could be “to stop my friend from killing Bill” or “to convince Sister Eliza to give up her love for a married man.” Second, dice pools are used which include d4s, d6s, d8s, and d10s. Each individual die is then used in a process similar to playing a poker game where characters Raise and otherwise compete with one another to resolve a conflict. It’s neat, but different.
Be aware that the author uses informal writing throughout the book. Further, the narrator sometimes uses period coloring in his speech and other times does not. Some people may not care for the writing style.
Under the Cover
This game makes use of an excellent table of contents as well as an index. Good job! Additionally, the major contents of each chapter are summarized at the end for clarity and easy reference. This is a great choice.
Chapter 1 How to Play 6 pages.
What is roleplaying, what sorts of dice are used (d4 through d10), and other sorts of basic information are presented here.
Chapter 2 A Land of Balm and Virtue 10 pages.
This is the whole setting in 10 pages, and it’s great! Basic geography, the sorts of services found in most small and large towns, and other general information is provided to help towns of the era come to life. While this is simple stuff, it’s extremely useful. I feel like in this 10 pages I have everything I need, in terms of setting, to run a Dogs game. I think that’s impressive.
Chapter 3 Creating Characters 32 pages.
Character creation is fairly simple. Players choose a basic focus for their characters and then distribute dice among Stats, Traits, and Relationships. There are four core Stats in the game: Acuity, Body, Heart, and Will. Anything characters do will involve at least two of these stats being combined. Traits are player defined phrases that can be just about anything. “Master horse rider 1d8” “Marksman 1d10” or “Can’t see without his glasses 1d4” Relationships are, as you would imagine, player defined relationships between their character any a person, place, or organization. “Brother Paul 1d6” “Salder’s Field 1d8” Players are encouraged to only buy one or two of their relationships at game start and to purchase the others during the course of the campaign.
This game uses a dice pool, so many of the values (especially Stats) will have many dice assigned to them. In addition to these more intrinsic parts of a character, players get to buy some simple equipment and are run through a background scenario to flesh out their character and introduce them to the system.
Chapter 4 Conflict & Resolution 25 pages.
Combat starts by the group agreeing what’s at stake. “I want to stop Sue from going to see Bill” or “I want that guy to acknowledge my authority as a Dog” Stakes should always be set in terms of the ultimate goal, not in the method to get there. The method is determined during the conflict resolution. Description is used to set the stage, and then it’s on to dice rolling.
However the conflict is being dealt with at the start determines which Stats are rolled. Acuity and Heart for talking, Body and Heart for physical non-combat stuff (lifting), Body and Will for fighting (fists, knives), or Acuity and Will for gunfighting. If the conflict escalates to something else (say someone draws a gun and starts shooting) then the other dice pool is rolled. However, no value can be rolled more than once in a conflict. Thus if Acuity and Heart were rolled for talking, and later a gun was pulled only Will would be rolled (since Acuity was already rolled). No matter what you’re rolling a moderate to large dice pool.
When dice are rolled they are left on the table, no need to add them up. Each conflict starts off with the two highest dice being added together on each side. Then the initiator Raises by adding two dice. The defender can counterattack (1 die), block/dodge (2 dice), or take the blow (3 dice) depending on how many dice of their own they must use to equal or exceed the Raise. When you counterattack you get to use that die again as part of your raise. Block/dodge just means there are no negative repercussions. When Taking the Blow the number of dice used to do so are set aside for later to determine damage (called Fallout). Then the other person Raises and play continues thusly.
Equipment, relationships, traits, and just about everything else add more dice when they’re brought into play. So in the initial conflict if you had “Loves Pedro 1d8” “Expert Marksman 2d6” and “Really Good Pistol 2d6” then the following would happen. If you were going up against Pedro you could bring in Loves Pedro for an extra 1d8 at the start of the conflict. Similarly if the fight was about Pedro or Pedro was otherwise involved the 1d8 may come in. If the conflict went to gunplay then the 2d6 for Marksman would come in for that, and if you’re using the Really Good Pistol you have then that’s another 2d6.
The thing about Traits and Relationships in this game is that they aren’t necessarily meant to represent how strong of a tie exists between two things. What the numbers actually represent is how important that idea is to the players. So, for example, you could have “Wears Glasses 2d8” on your Dog. If your character adjusts his glasses during the conflict, or otherwise involves that trait, 2d8 come in on your side. This results in group narration of events involving things that the players think are cool, which is just great.
The whole system plays out like a poker game to an extent, with raises, calls, etc. The dice are only rolled once, and then individual die are advanced and used during the conflict. While all of this is going on a lot of narration is occurring. If I counterattack your character’s punch by advancing a d10 that rolled a 10 to counter your 3 and 5 (8) then I might describe my character grabbing your first, jerking you to the side, and then trying to slap you across the face.
What’s really interesting is how conflicts escalate. Often it will become apparent to one side or another who is going to win the conflict as things currently stand. At that time there are only two real options. The first is to concede, or Cut your Losses, in which case you get to keep one die for a future conflict involving that same thing. The second is to escalate the conflict. If you were just talking and now want to throw a punch or pull a gun, then more dice are going to come in and things change. This could result in a verbal argument going bad for one side, the other side reaches for a gun, and then suddenly everyone wants to be friends. Escalating a conflict can be a serious business and shows just how important it is to the people involved. It’s great.
So, unlike rounds in most other games, the dice rolling here involves handfuls of dice whose values are then used to resolve the conflict. Setting stakes determines what is at stake, the actual dice rolling determines how one side gets what they want. Fallout, or damage, is determined by what sort of a conflict it was. Fist fights could hurt a person enough to seek out a doctor, but only gunfights are going to result in death. The experience system tracks how the dice turn up during Fallout and gives bonuses and penalties based on that. All of these bonuses and penalties relate to the conflict, so it results in characters that naturally evolve over time based on their experiences. Bonuses might also occur between towns based on what sorts of experiences a character had.
There’s more here, involving demonic influence and a few other topics. However, the resolution mechanic described above is the core of the system.
Chapter 5 Resolution in Action 8 pages.
This chapter presents nine fleshed out examples of how the system works. The book uses frequent examples all the way through to make the system easy to understand.
Chapter 6 The Structure of the Game 4 pages.
This chapter breaks down how the entire game plays out in a bullet point format, from arriving in a town to moving onto the next. It’s very helpful.
Chapter 7 Creating Towns 24 pages.
The focus here is on creating towns where something has gone wrong. There’s a hierarchy of how pride leads to sin and ultimately to murder and other horrible acts, and the book does a great job of showing the GM how to set up a variety of different problems in a town for the Dogs to investigate. A big part of the game is making those highly moralistic decisions about what should be done and then doing it. This could be anything from persuading someone to change their ways to dragging them kicking and screaming out of their home and shooting them dead.
It’s worth noting here that the game really has a continuum of the super natural. Dogs can be played as a realistic game, where the only true demons are the ones people invent and the Dogs are just faithful people who do their best to protect the community. Alternatively, it can be played where demons are real, where some Dogs really can heal by laying on hands and using the power of their faith.
Most importantly this chapter provides a lengthy look at what life is like in the setting. Mens roles, womens roles, what families are like, and other such similar information really helps bring the setting to life.
Chapter 8 Between Towns 4 pages.
A brief discussion of what to do between towns is presented. The answer is to reflect on what occurred in the last town and then move on. Dogs in the Vineyard is about going into the town, doing what needs doing, and moving on. The travel isn’t so important.
Chapter 9 Creating NPCs 12 pages.
A general discussion of NPCs is presented along with rules for quick NPC generation. NPCs are built six at a time, which really helps cut down on prep time for a GM. Indeed, this game has extremely little prep time involved. In addition, random NPC names and other helpful information is provided to further speed things along.
Chapter 10 How to GM 10 pages.
While there is some general GMing advice presented here, by far the advice given focuses on a Dogs game. The biggest one really is that the GM should not have a solution to the town’s problems in mind, and should try to follow the players lead. The Dogs are the ones that take care of things, and ultimately their solutions are the correct ones. That doesn’t mean the players are changing reality or anything, only that their characters are the moral law and it’s more interesting discovering what they do and why than trying to find the “right” answer.
My Take
Dogs in the Vineyard provides interesting mechanics, an expertly produced book, and a sharp focus on the sorts of stories it wants to tell. While the core system might be used to run certain other types of games, given how escalation works it’s really going to run games about the Dogs better than anything else. I like the product, and think the game would be fun to play. However, this isn’t a game for everyone. Given how the system works there has to be a “let the dice fall where they may” attitude going on, and it is wholly possible for characters to die. Playing highly moralistic religious gunslingers is, obviously, not going to appeal to a lot of players as well.
Because of its focused concept, interesting game system, incredible clarity, and excellent chapter summaries Dogs stands out as an excellent game. Unfortunately, while its old timey design is atmospheric this $22 game is much less visually appealing than some other similarly sized games in the same price range, such as OVA.
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