thread: 2009-07-03 : A fun interview about Dogs in the Vineyard
On 2009-07-11, Josh W wrote:
Just to be contrarian, (not really but imagine I am) do they really abandon them?
Or do they give them up for adoption to the trait system?
It feels to me like Dogs aikido-blends the player's creative impulse; they get to imagine in their head all the stuff about being a murderer brought back to life. You don't stand in their way. But once they dump that idea into the game, and play it out just a little bit (personal scene) it turns into a background, baseline thing.
The big thing I suppose I'm trying to say is that, the game allows you to say "you know what, fine, you have a million secret monkeys on a moon base, just don't talk to us about it!". Because people don't need to mention it, don't need to justify it in play, it doesn't get artificially inserted. This means that the focus of the SIS gets protected not by stringent requirements, but by their absence!
Players don't get defensive, don't fight for their concept, because they get to change it pretty safely (in theory at least), and then when they have invested enough in the town and it's interactions, ha ha! Their trapped, and implement far more sweeping changes to the concept than they would otherwise, just because it fits with the situation.
Does the same effect work in other settings? I'm not sure, I think being a dog is a pretty infectious social role!
I think whenever you suggest a change to your game, you will shock someone who loves it for that very reason, the way this game is designed to "convert" people to it's style of play is a big part of it's strength, and why it is often recommended as an intro. Call of Cthullu is similarly good at creating itself, and I wonder whether it would do well with the same kind of free-form trait setting.
On the other hand, I suppose many people who read this will already have learned to love dogs, so playing it your way as if it was a stricter "dogma at the door" game would be a challenge people would be interested in. Maybe subtitle it as "for experienced Dogs" to attract the right people!
