Dust Devils Revenged; A review
Previous post in this series include game prep: brainstorming, game prep: npc creation, AP 1st session, AP 2nd session.
Dust Devils Revenged. Chimera Creative. Matt Snyder. 2007.
116 pages. Digest sized.
Get it while the getting is still good. Below is an email I received from IPR.
There will be no further printings of Dust Devils. You’d need to contact the publisher himself to get an answer about the PDF.
—————-
Brennan Taylor
Indie Press Revolution
Galileo Games
Very simply Dust Devils Revenged is a game about dark western stories and flawed characters. Matt Snyder made it very clear that Unforgiven is the perfect example of a Dust Devils type story. Mechanically the game is very simple. When conflicts arise, the GM (called the Dealer in the game text) deals a hand of poker to the players. The number of cards dealt and number of cards available for the draw are determined by the characters stats. High hand wins the conflict, but high card wins narration. What kind of back-east flim flam is this? you say? That’s right, the GM only gets to narrate things between conflicts. In a conflict the only authority the GM has is to determine if the various stats are applicable. Beyond that, he’s just another player.
So how’s it work?
Very well. I had characters willing to give up the conflict goals in order to win narration. I had players initiating conflicts because they want to narrate something cool. (In fact he whole climactic showdown happened because the Doc’s player narrated it in when he had a conflict to sneak after Levi Oden.)
It is flexible in defining conflicts, so we could drill down to a shot by shot resolution (although this is time consuming) when dramatically appropriate. A word of caution, conflict can be devastating. If you go for a finer grained scene resolution, be forewarned. While the shot by shot scene did take some time, because we were playing a hand of poker to resolve things, it didn’t distract from the game.
One more word specifically about conflicts. They quickly get complicated if the Gm has more than one or two participants. Mr. Snyder’s intent, I believe, was to break larger conflicts into more discreet units. We discussed this after the game and saw that each method has it’s uses. In our final conflict, by having everyone as part of the same conflict, The Reverend’s Player, got to narrate a nice end for his character that wrapped up the whole scene. If we had resolved every thing as seperate conflicts it would have bogged us down, and likely lessened the impact the The Reverand’s final scene.
Ah yes, The End.
When a character takes enough Harm The End happens. Perhaps he gives in entirely to his Devil, maybe he has an epiphany or catharitic moment. regardless, he gets to narrate the result of the conflict and is then promptly removed from play. In my AP, The Reverend had The End during the shoot-out. There are a couple more things you can do at The End. You can offer succor through redemption (basically healing) someone else. You can also inflict additional Harm on your opponent.
Character Generation
In my opinion Character Generation is where Dust Devils shines like a newly minted tin star. A character is defined by 9 items. 4 scores, two traits, a past, a present, and a Devil. The scores are similar to attributes and correspond to the card suits. They are the basic building blocks for your deals in a conflict. The traits are best expressed, in my opinion, as a simile and can add to the deal. Your past and present are rated 1-3 and give you cards in the draw. Your devil is also rated 1-3 and can give you extra cards, take cards away, or neither. [See one of the characters as an example.]
But here’s where something mystical and magical happens. As you pick your traits and past and present, you are forming a back story for your character. By picking a devil you put a nasty twist in the back story that must be dealt with. I was amazed at how strong and interesting every character was. I made 8 NPCs in about 30 minutes and would gladly play any one of them.
For example let’s look at someone who didn’t see too much screen time. Marshal Abernathy.
I knew I wanted him to be a do nothing Marshal, letting his lackey brother-in-law and his idiot flunky do the work. But I also didn’t want a rube. He was a competent man if pushed. By giving him the “Seen it all before” trait I have both a mechanical reflection of his competence and a flag about how to play him. Being a former riverboat gambler I thought he would be “Sly as a Fox.” His past as a Riverboat Gambler is pretty far in his past, so I rated it at 1. Again, this is a mechanical reflection and a numerical indication of how much this past is still with him. Same for his present as a Town Marshal. I decided he may not be the best town marshal, but if pushed, he could rise to the occasion. Finally, looking over the list of sample Devils in the book, I had to choose lazy. It just fit perfectly. Very quickly I had created a man with a complicated story.
Dust Devils is not for every style of Western game. It is intentionally built to play haunted, flawed characters. the only way you could play a long term campaign would be to simply replace characters as they died.
For more reviews check here.