If In Doubt, Be Frank

Meg, Dogs in the Vineyard style

As I mentioned here, I've been thinking abut my characters in Dogs in the Vineyard terms, and Ginger said she'd like to see write ups for all the characters. I can't do that, but I can do a write up for Meg. Here's the result.

The process

Background

The obvious choices are Complicated History or Strong Community.

Strong History is too positive and doesn’t really express the bad things in Meg’s past. It would be better for Reid, and maybe Brennan.

Complicated Community suggests she’s socially vulnerable or that her relationships are problematic, and that is completely false. It would be great for Paige, but other things could also work for Paige.

Well-Rounded could do if others weren’t better fits. Well-Rounded works better for much younger characters. It would be great for Lilly, or Garrett.

So it comes down to whether Meg is more defined by her past experiences, attitudes and skills, or by her relationships to people. I’m going with Complicated History, because while relationships to people are very important to her, and she’s quite socially adept (both aspects of Strong Community), more fundamental to her is her habit of creating those relationships around her, and the attitudes her live experiences have given her.

Result: Complicated History

Stats

Complicated History gives me 15d6 to distribute amongst my Stats. The four stats are Acuity, Body, Heart, and Will.

It’s a little tricky to reflect Meg’s Element scores here, but I’ll do my best. They do not map cleanly at all, so one needs to think about what a certain Element score makes one good at, and then translate it. I found this most tricky, and here’s a small idea of why:

Fire and Earth both feed into Will;
Water and Earth feed into Heart;
Body is mostly Fire, but with other things tied in;
And Air, Water, and Fire could feed into Acuity, but different aspects of them.

Basically they’re completely different ways of describing a character and you just need to start from scratch when doing a DitV translation, and go back to the basic question of ‘what is this character good at?’

Acuity 3d6
Body 3d6
Heart 5d6
Will 4d6

Traits

The Complicated History background gives me 4d4, 2d6, and 2d10 to distribute amongst my Traits. Traits are things from my character’s background, skills, whatever. I always want lots of traits, and so I have to narrow it down. This is what I end up with:

I don’t know I’m Blood of Amber
I dream things that happened to other people
I fix other people’s lives for them
I get my way one way or another
I know the sordid side of life
I’m a pillar of the community
My family is what I make it

Now I need to assign dice. I can’t assign dice of different sizes to the same Trait. A trait can have 2d6, but not 1d4 + 1d10. This is where it gets interesting. Because I should give big dice to traits that I’m interested in as a player, not the ones that are most fundamental to the character. So giving a d10 to a trait is Claire saying ‘hey, Hive Mind, this is what’s interesting to me, give me opportunities to explore this trait and I’ll be a happy player.’

However, d4 traits are almost even more interesting. In a conflict, a d4 trait makes it more likely that my character will suffer grief in the process. Not that she’ll lose, but that the process will change her somehow, maybe just temporarily, maybe permanently, and maybe she’ll grow and become stronger from it. So while a d4 trait can be a weakness in some ways, it also makes the character very dynamic, and gives them more chance to grow and develop. So I need to consider which are the traits that are less likely to be wholly positive for my character, and which are likely to make her grow?

And thus I end up with:

I don’t know I’m Blood of Amber 1d10

This is a big gun. Meg is Blood of Amber but she also doesn’t know it. Both will help her kick butt. It’s an Amber game, it’s got to be a big trait, otherwise I’d be playing something else.

My family is what I make it 1d10

Pretty much the defining statement for Meg. This is what I’m interested in the game. For me, it’s all about definitions of Family. Meg has her own that’s not very compatible with royalty of Amber, and for me the game is about what happens when those meet. Also reflects Meg’s virtue.

I’m a pillar of the community 1d6 I know the sordid side of life 1d6 I fix other people’s lives for them 1d4

Aspects of Meg’s Fault show up here. Definitely an avenue for growth.

I get my way one way or another 1d4

Do I need to explain why this is d4?

I dream things that happened to other people 2d4

This is 2d4, and this would be a very interesting trait in play. A 2d trait gives extra staying power to a conflict, but the d4s make it a Fallout magnet.

Relationships

I get 5d6 and 2d8.

Amber parent 1d8
Orphanage of St Trista of the Tears 2d6
Ossian 2d6 (1d6 +1d6 for being blood)

I assign a die to Ossian, because they have the bond of the same orphanage, and the others remain in reserve.

Reserved 2d6 1d8

Belongings

Belongings don’t make so much sense for Meg at the moment. Unless I can put a Shadow down (Abford 2d6 perhaps) or something? When she’s moved from Abford, she’ll have belongings that require describing.

All of this is really a snap shot of the character. One of the key elements of Dogs in the Vineyard is that characters change. They Take The Blow in order to keep fighting and get Fallout. Fallout changes traits, relationships and dice, sometimes temporarily but also for good. I expect Meg’s traits to change quite a bit.

And a summary of the results:

Stats

Acuity 3d6
Body 3d6
Heart 5d6
Will 4d6

Traits

I don’t know I’m Blood of Amber 1d10
My family is what I make it 1d10
I’m a pillar of the community 1d6
I know the sordid side of life 1d6
I fix other people’s lives for them 1d4
I get my way one way or another 1d4
I dream things that happened to other people 2d4

Relationships

Amber parent 1d8
Orphanage of St Trista of the Tears 2d6
Ossian 1d6

Reserved 2d6 1d8

Posted by Claire at February 17, 2005 8:09 PM | TrackBack