Vincent,

I have Dogs in my hands right now, and it's like holding a burning brand. But do I want to let go? No. I want to be *marked*.

Thank you.

Before I was working on R&R [Robots & Rapiers] I'd started a western called Ride Boldly Ride. I set it aside because I couldn't settle on a die mechanic I really liked. I wish I'd thought of this one. The escalation of fall out dice sizes from non violent to unarmed to armed to firearm conflict is just tre cool. All the fun of poker with randomly rolled betting chips each new conflict. I love it.

I just finished reading the game, and I have to say that you have delivered the promise we've seen in your other games - your best work to date, if you don't mind me presuming.

The things I especially love in DiV:
- The setting and it's thematic contentt.
- The roleplaying advice: "say yes or rroll the dice", absolutely great.
- The straight-line depiction of Faith,, with no clue of "gotta get away from the evil and ignorant fanatics" at all.

...I'll definitely have to find the time to play Dogs at some stage. It would totally rock to set it in early 19th century Finland amongst awakened christians - "körttiläiset", as they are called. ...Actually, almost any Finnish christian fringe would do, I just realized that lestadian evangelism would be perfect: the faith was and is strongest in Lapland, which just happened to parallel american west in it's development... Oh my, I'm going to burst if I don't get to play this thing.

I hope my gushing doesn't bother you. It's just that even with the current renaissance of roleplaying design, fully formed gems are a rare treat.