Arf arf etc.
The Game: The Devil's Dandy Dogs
The Publisher: Monte Cook Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though it's more a box than a book
I have talked occasionally about games that are razor-focused on one particular thing and do that and nothing else, and how those games are a lot of fun as long as that one particular thing is what you want. The Devil's Dandy Dogs is such a game (as is Stealing Stories for the Devil, which came out of the same Kickstarter, I think). In Dandy Dogs, you're playing one of the Devil's titular puppers, and your job is to go out and fulfill a soul contract and then retrieve the soul in question.
Now, that's already a pretty niche setup, but the other gimmick, if you will, is that this is all presented as a story you're telling the Devil, meaning that whether you succeeded at your quest is not in question. It's literally all about the story you're telling and the drama therein.
I think this would be a fun one-shot, maybe even a short campaign, although I think if one were running it more than once it might be better served as the game the group picks up when they can't play their normal game for whatever reason (player is out, GM didn't have time to prep, whatever). I think playing it multiple sessions in a row would be...not too rich, exactly, but too much of one thing. But who knows. I suspect it's going to wind up at my table at some point, because "play a devilish shadow-doggo" is too good a hook for my players to ignore for long.
Making a character isn't gonna take long, either. First thing we do is pick a Role, which determines, well, precisely that, but also the style of storytelling our hellhound uses. The Beloved, for instance, tends to talk up other dogs, while the Faithful just reports everything with little embellishment and definitely no omission.
Well, if I were actually playing Dandy Dogs, I would probably pick one that plays to my natural playstyle, so let's go with the Beloved (I like to try and bring other players into the conversation; residual effect of being a forever GM).
Being the Beloved makes me Good in Devil, Very Good in Dog, and Best in Dandy. I get to pick a Goal and a Devil's Mark, and then a Name, and that's basically it, right?
I have an idea for my Devil's Mark - my dog looks, at a glance, like a curly-haired, black, medium-sized dog (much like a Portuguese water dog), but his tongue is pink and has weird, swirly black patterns on it (kinda like my dog Sandy's, except my character's tongue-swirls move and form mind-bending sigils when he pants).
His Goal...hmm. Goal is weird, because the dogs were all once living creatures, though not necessarily dogs. I'm gonna say that my dog doesn't remember exactly what he used to be, but he knows there was a dog involved. The other dog had brown and white fur, it was a little smaller than he is now, and it was afraid and running...and that's all he remembers. He wants to find that dog and make sure she's OK.
And that's all except a name, because my Tricks and Drive are determined by my Role! My Devil Dog's name is Caradin.
And that's it! Very quick chargen process.
