Dugway Canyon

You stand between God's law and the best intentions of the weak. You stand between God's people and their own demons. Sometimes it's better for one to die than for many to suffer. You are God's Watchdogs, guardians of the faith in a fantasy inspired by pre-statehood Utah in the 19th century. There is a sickness in Dugway Canyon, and you are the cure. An event heavy on conflict, strict yet creative mechanics, and moral judgement.

         This is an event which I ran for ConQuest 2005. This was my first time running Dogs at a convention, though not my first time running Dogs. Vincent Baker's advice regarding convention events (from The Forge, June 20, 2005) was as follows:

If you have only fifteen minutes, you're set - just run the little "shopkeeper from CT, whore/wife, brother, brother's son stealing money, brother's gonna shoot her, what do you do?" conflict in the book.

If you have four hours, you're set - do character creation in full, then a short town. I always use Tower Creek in the book.

Earlier, in (The Forge: January 10, 2005), he suggested for a 2-3 hour one-shot making 8 or 10 characters all the way with no loose Traits and no Initiations, and have everybody choose one. For a town, create one that's at Sorcery with a murder coming any second now, having a knot at the core that's easy to see but hard to solve. Probably an affair, a grown son, an old score to settle, some kind of mix like that.

The event is six hours, so I had plenty of time to explain rules, create characters, and work through a town. I prepared a preliminary town, entitled "Dugway Canyon" -- inspired by the modern-day history of Dugway Proving Grounds, a military chemical weapons testing area in Utah.


J. Hanju Kim <hanjujkim-at-gmail-dot-com>
Last modified: Wed Mar 22 11:07:24 2006