Brother Jabez Hobson Strong History Sister Love Collins Strong Community Brother Thomas Staines Complicated History * Accomplishment ** In Play ________________________________________________________________________ Brother Jabez Hobson Strong History Acuity 4d6 (was 3) Body 2d6 Heart 3d6 Will 5d6 Traits: Blood-Stopper 2d10 Steady hand 2d8 Ice for blood 3d8 (was 3d6) I'm a Dog 2d8 Only one knows all but still there is much I know 1d10 *Life is not here for your convenience 1d6 **Knives can cut many knots 1d6 Relationships: (available 1d4 3d6 **2d8) Taught to stop blood by Sister Mina, a Dog 1d8 Learnt to play cards from Uncle Timothy 1d8 *Crippled Sister Philomena 1d6 **Brother Luke Gibson 1d4 **Scarred Brother Daniel Hill 1d4 Belongings: Coat: Dusty brown with yellow stripes, with images of snakes, scorpions and hornets sewn into the crevices. "Fear not any venomous beast, even though you tread in their midst." Excellent Coat 2d6 Jar of Consecrated Earth 1d6 Book of Life 1d6 Horse (Paint) 1d6 Man-killing revolvers (pair) 2d6+1d4, 2d6+1d4 Excellent knife 2d6 Battered hat 1d4 Temporary Fallout: ** Protective of Women 1d4 ________________________________________________________________________ Love Collins Strong Community Acuity 4d6 (was 3) Body 2d6 Heart 5d6 Will 3d6 Traits: I listen to what people tell me 1d4 I was chosen to be a Watchdog for God 2d6 (was 1d6) I studied the book of life at my daddy's knee 2d6 My faith sustains me 1d8 I know what to do with a frying pan 1d8 *Sometimes the Lord calls us to raise our voice 1d6 Relationships: (available 3d6 1d8 3d10) Gramma Collins 2d8 Dog that Recommended Me 1d6 *Brother Malachi 1d6 (Temple Instructor who told me I could raise my voice) **Brother Daniel Hill 1d4 **Sister Sarah Weaver 1d4 **Brother Jabez Hobson 1d6 **Sin of Pride 1d8 Belongings: Coat is blue and sepia (was white), Bridal Falls pattern on back with small tree-of-life medallion patches elsewhere, made under Gramma's exacting supervision Excellent Coat 2d6 Excellent Book of Life 2d6 Jar of Consecrated Earth 1d6 Big Horse (Marigold) 1d8 Gun 1d6+1d4 Cast Iron Skillet 2d6 Utility Knife 1d4 Temporary Fallout (* I Expect People to Bail Me Out 1d4 -- used) ________________________________________________________________________ Brother Thomas Staines Complicated History Acuity 4d6 Body 6d6 (was 5) Heart 4d6 Will 2d6 Traits: Respectful of those who know 2d4 Strong as an ox 2d10 (was 1d10) Quiet as a cat 1d10 I'm a dog 3d6 (was 2d4) Animals like me, 1d6 But the kids I grew up with didn't 1d6 *Sinners don't listen 1d6 Relationships: (available 2d6 1d8) My Brother, John 1d6 Steward of the Branch I Grew Up In 2d6 **Brother Jabez Hobson (he's scary) 1d4 **Sister Anne Weaver, 13, in Weaver's Ford 1d8 Belongings: Coat is large and excellent but overly cluttered with designs and colors Large Excellent Coat 2d8 Brand New Book of Life 1d6 Jar of Consecrated Earth 1d6 Large Black Horse unridable by others (Tornado) 1d8 Hunting Rifle 1d6+1d4 ======================================================================== I've been dying to run Dogs since reading it six weeks ago, and finally schedules meshed and I ran my first game. We had a great time! All three players (Earl, Christy, and her husband Chris) had read the rules, and I've gamed with Earl & Chris for more than a decade, mostly Champions, and more recently D&D 3.5 with Earl and some other folks. They made up characters together, sharing ideas back and forth with a bit of prompting from me, and it took about an hour for that, then an hour to do the accomplishments, with a fair bit of that time trying to pin down just what we wanted those to be. The characters are very different and should give each other a lot to play off, with a good mix of strengths and weaknesses. There could have been more interaction during character design. We come from a strong tradition of "The GM controls the world, each player controls their own PC, no stepping over the line" so I think it'll take some practice to fuzz those boundaries better. We didn't discuss the supernatural level; I'm planning to follow their lead. There's clearly some, given Jabez is a Bloodstopper. We'll see. Christy's Sister Love Collins (Strong Community) comes from a big family where all the kids have names like that. She's one of the younger. She's good at talking to folks and listening to what they need to say, but just a little bitty slip of a girl and not much in a fight. She has a great big horse named Marigold because the Dog Stewards must have thought that'd be funny, but it came in very handy. Chris's Brother Thomas Staines (Complicated History) is a huge man who grew up without a father after his Mama converted to the Faith with his brother and him when he was about 10. Before that, his father was a drunk. Brother Thomas had a rough time from the other kids, so he's used to settling things with his fists, and good at that. He has a great big horse so his legs don't drag on the ground, named Tornado, with the kind of temperament that inspires a name like that. Because of his hunger for a father he respects anyone who knows things. Earl's Brother Jabez Hobson (Strong History) is frail and consumptive, but with a healer's touch and a will of ice. (Jabez means "born with pain", and a big HURRAH for Jason Morningstar's "Names Among the Faithful" and "Wisdom from the Book of Life", which I printed out on antique-looking paper -- both were darn handy!) Brother Jabez is none too good in a fistfight, but mighty good patching folks up after. (It looks like he'll be really deadly in a gunfight, but so far we haven't seen him pull his twin man-killin' revolvers.) He has a trait inspired by a neat bit of Ozarks folklore (http://www.illinoishistory.com/bloodstopping.html): A bloodstopper can halt the unnatural flow of blood by reciting a certain charm. They can only teach it to 3 other people, who must be members of the opposite sex and not related to them, and after they teach the 3rd person it stops working for them. For the Dogs setting, it requires reciting a bit of the Book of Life. He took a relationship with the Dog who taught it to him (Sister Mina), and with his Uncle Timothy who taught him to play cards, but interestingly not with his parents. Hmmmhhhm. Brother Jabez also took the trait "Only one knows all but still there is much I know 1d10" which fits very nicely with Brother Thomas. Several of their traits are pleasingly "dual use", like Brother Jabez' "Steady hand 2d8" suitable for both shooting and surgery, and Sister Love's "I know what to do with a frying pan 1d8" for cooking and banging people over the head (not that she has so far), and even Brother Thomas' "But the kids I grew up with didn't 1d6" which comes after "Animals like me 1d6", which is handy for brawling but also for understanding outsiders and hatred and all sorts of things. Cool. Sister Love reflexively sized up both her comrades in terms of husband material and decided neither would do, since Brother Thomas has no family and Brother Jabez is clearly not long for this world, what with the coughing blood and all. But as her father told her when she went off to service, "Don't do your courtin' on God's time."