Dogs in the Vineyard
You stand between God's people and their own demons.
Sometimes it's better for one to die than for many to suffer. Sometimes, Dog, sometimes you have to cut off the arm to save the life.
Does the sinner deserve mercy?
Do the wicked deserve judgement?
They're in your hands.
DOGS IN THE VINEYARD
roleplaying God's Watchdogs
in a West that never quite was.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WHAT'S THE GAME?
From the Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Dogs in the Vineyard is about God's Watchdogs, young men and women called to preserve the Faithful in a hostile frontier territory. They travel from town to isolated town, carrying mail, news, and doctrine, healing the sick, supporting the weary, and pronouncing judgment upon the wicked. One early playtester said what she loves about the game: a town welcomes you with celebration and honor, but what you're there to do is stir up its dirt and lay bare its sins.
The setting is a fantasy inspired by pre-statehood Utah, the Deseret Territory, in the early-mid 19th century. Picture a landscape of high mountains, icy rivers and cedar woods, falling away westward into scrublands, deserts, buttes and swells. The summer skies are heartbreaking blue, but the winters are long and killing.
Picture religious pioneers, fleeing persecution and violence in the East. They're trying to establish a society based on faith and righteousness out in this frontier. They've made the long trek westward but they're still in danger: their towns are small and isolated, vulnerable to attack from without, sin and corruption within. Under pressure, their pride becomes sin, their anger becomes violence, their resentments become hate. Winter and the demons howl...
Picture God's Watchdogs, holding the Faith together.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hello Everyone!
I am starting my first ever online Dogs In The Vineyard story here on Myth-Weavers. I am looking for a minimum of two players and a maximum of four. I really enjoy this game and it's feel. Dogs is a blast to play. As your GM I will commit to checking the thread throughout the day and posting at least once every day.
To those considering being players here I would ask you to consider your commitment level. I know in the past I have agreed to step on with a group and play some great games, yet a few days later I would drop out without a "thank you" or "goodbye."
I understand that life is hectic, but I would ask you try and at least check the thread once a day and at the least post once a week. I'd really like to keep this game alive and moving. I've found that stagnant games lose energy quick and soon die. I don't want this, and if you're into playing this game I hope you don't either.
Okay off my soapbox.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ABOUT THE PCs
From the Going Forward section of the Character Creation Chapter
A DOG'S DUTIES
As your character travels from branch to branch, here are some things he or she will routinely be called upon to do:
- Carry mail and news.
- Officiate or participate in holy ceremonies: naming babies, dedicating children to the Faith, solemnizing weddings, blessing the sick, anointing and sanctifying the dead. Most branches will have a Steward who can perform these, but the Faithful will be honored by your participation.
- Deliver doctrine and new interpretation as needed to the branch's Steward and other office holders, and consult with them about the challenges the branch faces.
- Preach.
- Participate in, but hold yourself apart from, the branch's social functions and celebrations.
- Help the branch out with physical work, like bringing in a harvest or digging out from a blizzard, only when the need is immediate and acute.
In a perfect world, your character would mostly shake hands and kiss babies. Too bad it's not a perfect world, huh?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +
And it definitely will not be a perfect world. Along with the human element and all of it's various facets, players will also be confronted by demons and creatures of evil too.
ABOUT THE SUPERNATURAL
From the GMing Character Creation section of the Character Creation Chapter
How much SUPERNATURAL EFFECTIVENESS are we building into our characters? Don't judge whether it's too much or too little; you're to keep an open mind and follow our lead. The supernatural in the game will be somewhere on a continuum. At this end, barely any, where the demons are really just bad luck and the pressures a town has to struggle with to survive, and the ceremonies of the Faith only reassure the Faithful and remind them of their commitments to one another. At the other end, lots and lots, with the Dogs as powerful exorcist-gunslingers battling demons, sorcerers and ghosts, where calling a person by name can restore him to life and bullets slide off a Dog's coat, striking sparks. Look at the Traits we give our characters, and you'll begin to see where on that continuum this particular game will fall.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!
-Skydut
