But anyway, I'm running this game (making characters tomorrow), and chargen looks quick. Also, this:
The Game: It's a Dog's Life
The Publisher: Beyond Belief Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. I've read it, gonna run it. Michelle likes prairie dogs.
Books Required: Just the one.
OK, so the "dogs" in the game are, as you may have guessed, prairie dogs, and they have this quasi-Native American culture going on, complete with feathers that they use as status. There's a substantial amount of the book dedicated to their legends, which I think is cool, and their kewl powerz are barks, which is neat.
My first step in making the character is to roll for my Attributes. I'm not usually a fan of random chargen, but what the hell, we'll try it. Since I actually have dice handy, I'll use them. I roll:
Size 6
Agility 2
Wisdom 3
Spirit 5
I'm evidently a pretty plump little dog. OK, now I choose what physical or social feature is most prominent. Well, with Size 6 and Agility 2, I think it's that I'm fat.
Now I choose dreams. No slot on the character sheet for those, tsk, tsk. My dog's dream is to find the Blue Grass. He dreamed it one night, this grass with a slightly blue tinge that is so delicious and so filling that everyone can eat for a year off a single patch. Plenty for everyone!
Feathers: I just get one, because I'm a starting character. That's easy.
Wound points: Size + 6. I'm built like a tank and hard to hit.
Now I choose a Role. Kind of my "splat", if you will, my place in dog society. A quibble, here: There are prerequisites to have these from Attributes, but you roll your Attributes. A pool of points might be better? Eh. Oh, wait, now that I read it, the only one that has a pre-req is Wildling, and the pre-req isn't stated up front, it's buried in the text. BOOOOOO.
Anyway, for my chubby little dog's role, I pick...oh, wait. God dammit. If my Attribute totals are less than 16, I get to make up the difference. Well, shit, might that not have been a good thing to point out under the section? GUYS. As it happens I have 16 exactly, so that doesn't apply. Moving on.
Speaker appeals, but actually I think my guy will be a Sentinel. He's fine with staying in one place and watching...he just tends to nibble while he watches. That gives me the Ability of Watching and the Bark of Warning.
Oh, for fuck's sake. The character sheet is wrong. There's actually no Spirit Attribute. And, there are minimum Attributes for the Roles, but they're not listed under the roles, they're listed under the Attributes. GUYS. STAHP. BAD GAME WRITING.
OK, no worries. Cross off Spirit, fill in Alertness, and that gives me a 5 in Alertness which is, as it happens, the Attribute I need at 4 or better to be a Sentinel. Christ.
Anyway, now I do Abilities/Barks. I have Watching, Critter Lore, Bark of Command and Tribal Bark at 1. I then get 4 points to split among those, so I put one into Watching and Critter Lore and two into Bark of Warning. And then I get 4 more points to put into those or any freely available Abilities or Barks (which took me a while to figure out; the book is not clear, though there is an example of chargen, which is what cleared it up). So I put two into Tooth & Claw (gotta be able to fight if someone does roll on the colony) and two into Bark of Stunning.
Right, now I need a name. My prairie dog's name is Boulder. Yes, it's a fat joke. No, he's not offended.
OK, so, another annoyance: As written, this game has you roll a d20 and roll under your Attribute + Ability or Bark. So let's check. If I'm rolling, say, Agility + Tooth & Claw, I have a 4. I'm not gonna succeed. But then my Agility sucks. How about Alertness + Watching? There I've got a 7! I have almost a 50% chance.
Yeah, fuck that. When I run it we're using d10s, not d20s. Seriously, did you people playtest this at all? Or were the players those weird d20 player people who think that having starting characters that suck is fun? (It's not.)
Anyway, here's Boulder:
Sounds mostly like editing fubars. Prarie Dogs are cute.
ReplyDeleteExcept for the "you don't have enough points for a d20 roll to make sense" part, yeah.
DeleteThanks for looking at It's a Dog's Life. It's cool you wanted to give it a go. To clear up some of your criticisms:
ReplyDeleteRight at the start of chargen after "Roll Attributes", it says "There is an optional method. Also under "Choose a Role" it tells you there are minimum attributes for each Role and to check you meet the requirements. It looks like you just read the "brief rundown" section. After that section, it describes char gen in more detail "Creating your character". The alternative method is to split points amongst your attributes. I'm not sure about the alertness/spirit thing. I suppose it depends which version of the rules you picked up. In the current version, it's definitely alertness. On the D20 rolling issue. First it's because you don't want to be rolling for everything - only when it matters. Secondly, you are only really good at the things you are noted for in your Role. Third, you aren't supposed to be killing things like Wolverines and Eagles. They're supposed to be a threat. Fourth, if it's something relatively easy you are doing, there's a +2 modifier (see the Task Difficulty Table). Then there's "Daubing" - which can add +2 to certain tasks and lastly Feathers, which can be used to add another +2. Prairie Dogs are supposed to be a bit chewy. Only the very best should be able to come through to be "Top Dog". I was also going to add a +2 modifier for prairie dogs acting in concert to defend each other or the Tribe (as they are Tribal in nature), so you could always do this too (it never got into the rules, I don't know how this slipped through).
Hi, Simon! Thanks for dropping by!
Delete1) Chargen: I did wind up figuring out how it all worked, I just think it could have been presented more clearly.
2) Alertness/Spirit: Dunno. I bought Kids & Critters at GenCon last year, that's the version I have.
3) Rolls: I get all of that, but rolling on a d20 when your average total (for stuff you're good at!) is 7 is going to lead to a lot of failures, even if you only roll when it's really important.
FWIW, we played the game (using d10s rather than d20s) and had a lot of fun with it. I'll do up an actual play report and post it. My group actually had a really positive experience with the game and my daughter is really keen to play it, too.
I love It's a Dog's Life (I know I wrote it and all that, but if I like it I gotta say it and I've written tons of other games and this one tops most of 'em) - it is actually one of my favourite ever rpgs (maybe that's why I'm so protective of it!). I just wish other people would "get it". Still, I suppose the "failure" thing is a big issue for a lot of people, so it probably does need looking at again. I assure you though that I have run this game over a long period of time with several different gaming groups (both as a GM and a player) and we didn't really have the problems you mention here. The answer is to avoid fighting (tooth & claw) whenever a bigger creature shows up, use your barks like there is no tomorrow and make sure you have a Speaker who can use Daubing on everyone to boost their abilities. It's a dangerous world out there on the prairie! Still, like I said, thanks for giving it the time and I'm glad to hear you players are keen for more. I look forward to reading your write up.
ReplyDelete