Dogs in the Vineyard
Encyclopedia
Dogs in the Vineyard is an independently published
role-playing game
based on the history of the Mormons
. It was written by D. Vincent Baker and published by Lumpley Games.
In the 2004 Indie RPG Awards
, Dogs in the Vineyard was awarded Indie RPG of the Year and Most Innovative Game. In 2005 it was nominated for a Diana Jones Award
for Excellence in Gaming. It generally encourages narrativist play.
State of Deseret
in pre-statehood Utah
. Players are "God's Watchdogs" (Dogs), who travel from town to town delivering mail, helping out the community and enforcing the judgments of the True Faith of the King of Life. This may involve anything from delivering new interpretations to the town's Steward to executing heretics. Dogs have absolute authority within the Faith, but not within the laws of the Territorial Authority, and so their actions can lead to conflict with the government in the East.
-style bids.
Character's statistics and traits are represented by dice pool
s. At the start of a conflict, the Gamemaster
and other players decide what is at stake, determine which pools are applicable, and those are rolled at that point. The character with the initiative
puts forward a "raise" of two dice, while narrating a portion of the conflict which is beneficial to his character's position in the conflict. The opponent must respond by putting forward one or more dice whose total exceeds the total of the dice which were used to raise, or "give" — i.e. lose the conflict. If three or more dice are needed, the opponent suffers "fallout" — a negative outcome to be determined at the end of the conflict. If only one die is needed by the opponent, the attack has been "turned against the attacker" and the die can be reused to raise in the next round. The opponent now begins a round by putting forward two dice which the first character must match, and so on until one player or the other gives. Players may bring in new dice by "escalating" the conflict, from non-physical (discussion) to physical (running away) to brawling and then to gunfighting. If the conflict didn't start with non-physical, players may escalate from gunfighting to discussion, though it occurs only rarely. The GM's set of rules in conflict is very simple: "Say yes, or roll dice."
One of the most potent aspects of the system is "Town Creation" where the moral landscape of the town is laid out in the form of characters, their desires, and what they've done to each other. This gives the GM the ability to make sure that merely engaging meaningfully in the town is interesting and making wins or losses less important to them. By representing the townsfolk and their interests, rather than presenting a tactical challenge, the GM is able to pose interesting questions of the players and give them opportunities to judge their own characters.
Indie role-playing game
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside of traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the game should just be produced outside of a corporate...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
based on the history of the Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
. It was written by D. Vincent Baker and published by Lumpley Games.
In the 2004 Indie RPG Awards
Indie RPG Awards
The Indie RPG Awards are annual, creator-based awards for Indie role-playing game products. The creator of the Awards is Andy Kitkowski. It was established on 2002....
, Dogs in the Vineyard was awarded Indie RPG of the Year and Most Innovative Game. In 2005 it was nominated for a Diana Jones Award
Diana Jones Award
The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded to a person, product, publication, company, organization, event or trend – anything related to gaming; second, it does...
for Excellence in Gaming. It generally encourages narrativist play.
Setting
The game is set in "a West that never quite was" - loosely based on the MormonMormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
State of Deseret
State of Deseret
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, propositioned in 1849 by Latter-day Saint settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government...
in pre-statehood Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. Players are "God's Watchdogs" (Dogs), who travel from town to town delivering mail, helping out the community and enforcing the judgments of the True Faith of the King of Life. This may involve anything from delivering new interpretations to the town's Steward to executing heretics. Dogs have absolute authority within the Faith, but not within the laws of the Territorial Authority, and so their actions can lead to conflict with the government in the East.
System
The game features an unusual form of conflict resolution, where die rolls are used in pokerPoker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
-style bids.
Character's statistics and traits are represented by dice pool
Dice pool
In some role-playing game systems, the dice pool is the number of dice that a player is allowed to roll when attempting to perform a certain action.-Mechanics:In most RPG systems, most non-trivial actions require dice rolls...
s. At the start of a conflict, the Gamemaster
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
and other players decide what is at stake, determine which pools are applicable, and those are rolled at that point. The character with the initiative
Initiative (role-playing games)
In role-playing games and some table-top wargames, a character's initiative is a statistic which determines the order in which player characters take actions, especially during combat or other forms of conflict resolution....
puts forward a "raise" of two dice, while narrating a portion of the conflict which is beneficial to his character's position in the conflict. The opponent must respond by putting forward one or more dice whose total exceeds the total of the dice which were used to raise, or "give" — i.e. lose the conflict. If three or more dice are needed, the opponent suffers "fallout" — a negative outcome to be determined at the end of the conflict. If only one die is needed by the opponent, the attack has been "turned against the attacker" and the die can be reused to raise in the next round. The opponent now begins a round by putting forward two dice which the first character must match, and so on until one player or the other gives. Players may bring in new dice by "escalating" the conflict, from non-physical (discussion) to physical (running away) to brawling and then to gunfighting. If the conflict didn't start with non-physical, players may escalate from gunfighting to discussion, though it occurs only rarely. The GM's set of rules in conflict is very simple: "Say yes, or roll dice."
One of the most potent aspects of the system is "Town Creation" where the moral landscape of the town is laid out in the form of characters, their desires, and what they've done to each other. This gives the GM the ability to make sure that merely engaging meaningfully in the town is interesting and making wins or losses less important to them. By representing the townsfolk and their interests, rather than presenting a tactical challenge, the GM is able to pose interesting questions of the players and give them opportunities to judge their own characters.
External links
- Lumpley Games' home page for Dogs in the Vineyard
- Lumpley Games Forum on The Forge, mostly concerned with DitV