Dogs in the Vineyard, session 2

Last night the indie RPG group came over for a full session of Dogs in the Vineyard.

I know people who rave about this game, so it's nice to finally get a good look at it and see what it's all about. I was not disappointed.

So far, the game is an excellent alchemy of character and mechanics. As a 'Dog,' your objective is to act as the mortal hand of the King of Life (God), and your decisions are the word of God. At one point in the game, I said to the GM:

"In this world, what is the proper procedure for dealing with this kind of situation?"

and the GM said:

"What do you think it is? Your words and actions are law."

It puts you in a unique psychological position because your character is often beset by human problems and human drives. Knowing your word is law, do you take those as divine guidance, or do you trust in your conscience? Regardless, no matter what you do you are "right."

This came to a head when our group of dogs came to different conclusions over what ought to be done with a woman who had been possessed by a demon--and when we were debating what was to be done with someone we suspected to be a sorcerer. Furthermore, my own character, Enoch Taylor, had to struggle with his own emotions when a wealthy smith wished to take the woman Enoch had adored from afar as a second wife. There were a lot of moral quandries.

The mechanics are pretty neat too. I said a few weeks ago that I didn't like the way "social combat" was done in Burning Wheel (by way of Mouse Guard) and I'll stand by that. I prefer straight up improvisation and scene building. Dogs in the Vineyard, however, incorporates its own mechanics for social (or any other kind of) conflict, involving dice pools where a player makes an argument and then sets out 2 dice to support it. The other player or NPC tries a different tactic and then sets out 2 dice to raise/counter. The difference is that you're not blindly choosing your action; you're narrating it and then grabbing dice to support it. You're looking over your character sheet for character traits, relationships, and objects (that you made up and assigned dice to, rather than selecting them from a list in a rulebook) to add to your dice pool, trying to be as resourceful as possible... or even not as resourceful as possible if you think you may "lose" the conflict or if you think your character should lose. Even losing can provide new character traits, improve your character, and make him or her better for future conflicts. They benefit from the experience. Or they suffer from it for a while. It really is in the player's hands.

I'm only scratching the surface here, but this is the gist of it. Last night, Enoch lost the argument about whether Alexandrina (the girl he likes) should become a second wife to the smith. One of his traits is "tries to play by the rules but his heart gets the better of him." To the detriment of my character, I allowed him to have an emotional outburst and storm off (behavior unbecoming of a 'Dog'). I decided that Enoch went to meditate and pray, and confess his pride to the King of Life. Since I was the only one out in the night on my own, Enoch actually witnessed one of the townswomen be possessed by a demon (the town's problem reveals itself). Taking this as a cue from the King of Life, Enoch went forth fearlessly to confront the demon and redeem himself. Where my dice had failed me previously, this time they sang. Gandalf-like (or Exorcist-like if you choose), he pursued the woman and drove the demon from her. This experience taught him about what was important to a 'Dog.' Or at least, he sees it as a sign that if one is humble and forsakes his pride, the King of Life will reward him with an opportunity to serve.

It was cool to wrestle with the moral dilemmas facing the group. It was cool to have a scene where I was like a paladin casting out demons. I'm still new to the game, but so far I really like the way its mechanics further the story. Like Kagematsu, these sessions of Dogs in the Vineyard are indelibly etched into my heart and mind. This is the good stuff. Real role-playing experiences rich in story and substance, and a whole heck of a lot of fun.