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    Games You Should Be Playing: Dogs in the Vineyard

    RodrigoBy RodrigoMay 30, 2010Updated:August 4, 20109 Comments5 Mins Read

    Do you have what it takes to be God’s Watchdog in the West that never was?

    That’s the question asked by Dogs in the Vineyard, a highly unusual roleplaying game. The players take the role of The King of Life’s Watchdogs, priests and judges who travel from town to town settling disputes, teaching the Faith and making sure no one is accidentally summoning demons.

    A LAND OF BALM AND VIRTUE

    “Dogs” has an incredible setting. It is a strange alternate history of the old west. Out in the plains of a land that may or may not be the U.S. Lies Bridal Falls, the cradle of the Faith. There the adherents of the one true religion praise The King of Life, the one true god. As keepers of The Faith the player characters are in charge of herding the faithful towards a righteous life, while treading carefully around the agents of the Territorial Authority, the actual legal officials of the country.

    The setting spells plainly that The Faith is the only true religion, and people who do not follow it begin a spiral toward sinfulness and, eventually, demon worship. It is up to the players to identify those who have fallen into sin and take action, whether that action is redemption or execution depends on the story being woven by the group.

    Now, at this point you may be thinking that this game is starting to sound like the negative-image of Dark Dungeons. Maybe you think that “Dogs” is doing what fundamentalists accused D&D of doing back in the early days of gaming. Is this some kind of ploy to trick you into becoming a God-fearing christian?

    It’s really not.

    This is a game that explores the nature of faith, obedience and trust. Just as you have to suspend your disbelief in your average fantasy game, Dogs asks you to immerse yourself in a world where adherence to the King of Life is the only way to save those that you have been charged to protect. The fictitious faith in this game is clearly meant to mirror Christianity but the Faith itself is not the focus of the game.

    YOU ARE PLAYING IT RIGHT NOW

    Ok, not quite, but the mechanics are very tightly woven into the whole experience. Dogs in the Vineyard features an absolutely inspired character creation system. You create your character as you play your first session, which culminates on a big life defining moment. Your character’s success or failure there will help to define him or her for the rest of the game. But don’t worry, failure’s a good thing.

    The second amazing thing about the engine of Dogs in the Vineyard is that there is no such thing as bad stats. There are a lot of games out there that have systems for “Flaws”, that is to say inherent drawbacks that somehow impede your character, a trick knee, bad eyesight, nosy neighbors. Most games have a punishment/reward system for these. If your flaw flares up and hinders you, you are rewarded with experience points or something similar. Not so in DitV. A Dog who is “A Pretty Good Shot.” adds a bigger bonus than one who “Hates the sound guns make” but the latter still adds a situational bonus when guns are drawn, or can even apply that bonus to situations that do not involve gunplay as long as he is actively trying to stop people from firing a gun.

    Also of note is an interesting focus on escalation. As towns descend into sin they go through steps starting with false dogma and ending in outright demonic possessions. These are actual marked stages that influence the stats of the game. Likewise altercations escalate mechanically from verbal arguments to deadly gunfights, each stage allowing players to showcase different traits they have generated for their characters.

    (A) GOOD BOOK

    The book itself is a beautiful little paperback. It looks like a small novel (so no one will make fun of you while you read it at the airport), the entire book is written as though D. Vincent Baker, the game designer, was having a pleasant conversation with you. It is an extremely enjoyable read even if you never plan to play it. The interior art is not very impressive, but the illustrations have a lithograph-like feel, and still add something to the general vibe of the book.

    AN UNUSUAL GAME

    Dogs in the Vineyard is not your standard RPG, it asks you to abandon a lot of the structure and cadence of more mechanical games, while also inviting you to immerse yourself in the strangely familiar mindset of The Dogs. If you’re looking for something beyond the battle grid, if you want to play a fictitious game with a historical feel, or if you just want to try out something new and different I strongly recommend that you track this little book down.

    Dogs in the Vineyard Games games you should be playing Gaming Indy Games
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    Rodrigo
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    Nobody really knows what Rodrigo's deal is. He is a perpetual enigma, an unknown quantity, the X factor. He's the new kid in school, the unlisted number, the person all your friends talk about, but you've never met. How can one person be so mysterious, you ask? THAT IS ALSO TOTALLY A MYSTERY! You can try to keep tabs on him on twitter by following @fearsomecritter, but that probably won't help.

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    9 Comments

    1. Stephen Schleicher on May 30, 2010 9:31 pm

      Why yes, this is repost of one of the long lost Major Spoilers awesome articles.

      Reply
      • Astrodinosaurus on May 30, 2010 9:47 pm

        I was just about to ask..why is it getting reposted on the front page?
        Oh and as a side-note, Rodrigo needs to write more stuff for the site. I was always interested in the pulpy tabletop games and was wondering if our resident GM had any experience with the pulpy-monster genre… Anything Hellboy or Cthulhu.

        Reply
        • Stephen Schleicher on May 30, 2010 9:59 pm

          Why on the front page? Because it was a lost article, and deserves another chance at life…

          Reply
          • Astrodinosaurus on May 30, 2010 10:05 pm

            I am confuzzled… Will everything lost that month be re-posted between new articles?

            Reply
            • Stephen Schleicher on May 30, 2010 10:33 pm

              no. I’m just too lazy to figure out the exact date this article originally appeared. If the story was really good, and generated a lot of conversation, it may show up on the front page again. Call it the whim of the editor, and enjoy the ride :D

              Reply
        • Rodrigo on May 31, 2010 1:18 am

          I’ve only played Call of Cthulhu once, and it wasn’t really representative of the game or the genre, since the GM didn’t know how to put together a good mystery and we spent a lot of time chasing red herrings.

          Reply
          • Astrodinosaurus on May 31, 2010 11:06 am

            Well that sucks. But hey maybe now you could show him/her how its done with your own campaign, post Critical Hit season 1 of course. Or are you guys set on doing something along the lines of Champions?

            Reply
    2. Hafwit on May 31, 2010 8:12 am

      It did feel like I’d read it before. Nothing wrong with that. It’s fun game that deserves to be more widely known.

      Reply
    3. TorontoFrog on April 1, 2011 1:39 pm

      I remember having read this article in way back the futur of the past and I just want to let people know that D. Vincent Baker had recently created I’d say one of the most awesome table top game, Apocalypse World.

      Rodrigo, you ought to write something about it! If you dont want, I’ll petion the robot overlord to force you to do it.

      Reply

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