Dogs with Cards

Dogs Play Cards, Too

A set of rules for playing Dogs in the Vineyard with a deck of regular playing cards (no Jokers).

If you have more than three players, you'll probably need two decks.

In some ways, this is inspired by what little I know of The Princes' Kingdom. I believe that all the features of Dogs mechanics are represented faithfully.

Characters

Stats

Acuity, Body, Heart, Will

Traits

• Regular traits receive no special marking.
• Troublesome traits receive a "-" mark.
• Strong traits receive a "+" mark.
• Significant traits receive a "*" (asterisk/star) before their name.

Converting from regular Dogs rules:

• Troublesome Traits are like 1d4 or 2d4 Traits.
• Regular Traits are like 1d6, 2d6, or 1d8 Traits.
• Strong Traits are like 2d8, 1d10, or 2d10 Traits.
• Significant Traits are like Traits that have 3 or 4 dice in them, and they can be of any "size", whether regular, troublesome, or strong. For example, 4d6 is significant, 3d10 is strong and significant, and 4d4 is troublesome and significant.

Example: Let's say you draw your gun. Draw cards for it normally, but also draw cards as though you brought a troublesome trait into play (for that extra d4).

Convert an existing character by the guidelines above, or, to make a new character, choose one of the following templates:

Well-rounded

Distribute 9 points between the four Stats. Put at least one point in each.

You get:

• One troublesome trait
• One regular trait
• One strong trait

And:

• One strong relationship
• One troublesome relationship

Well-defined

Distribute 7 points between the four Stats. Put at least one point in each.

You get:

• One troublesome trait
• One regular trait
• One strong trait
• One significant trait

And:

• One troublesome relationship
• One regular relationship
• One significant relationship

All characters can also have belongings. By default, you may start with:

• One troublesome (crappy) possession.
• One regular (average) possession.

And either:

• One significant (big) possession, or
• One strong (quality) possession.

Or just choose whatever you want, as in Dogs. I find having a default is helpful or new players, though.

Conflicts

When a conflict comes up, draw one card for each Stat point that applies, as per Dogs rules.

Also draw cards for any applicable traits, just as you would add dice in Dogs.

Here's how Traits work (belongings and relationships work the same way):

• For a regular Trait, draw one card.
• For a troublesome Trait, draw two cards but only keep the worst one.
• For a strong Trait, draw two cards but only keep the best one.
• For a Trait that's significant, draw twice as many cards, but follow the same rules as usual (e.g. if it's a regular trait, just draw two cards, but if it's a troublesome Trait, draw four cards and keep the worst two).

Aces are low, face cards are worth 11 points (i.e. a face card beats a Ten).

To Raise, push forward one card.

To See, you must match or beat that card's value (also with one card).

You Take the Blow if you decide to See with two or more cards. Draw that same number of cards from the deck (face down) and set them aside--that's fallout. You'll have a space on your character sheet to leave talking fallout, physical fallout, etc--separate piles for each.

You Reverse the Blow if you can See with a card double the value of your opponent's Raise. You get to keep that card if you want to use it for your next Raise.

Fallout

At the bottom of your character sheet, have space for four fallout piles, labelled, and with card ranks listed, like this:

[table] | Talking | Physical | Fighting | Guns | | 4 and up | 7 and up | 10 and up | Q or K | [/table]

After the conflict's over:

From each pile, put any cards that are of the rank listed or higher aside, all in one pile on the left. That pile of cards is Experience pile.

So, for example, if you have four Physical fallout cards, any of them that are a 7 or higher go into your Experience pile. (Reminder: Aces are low, so you never put those aside.)

Take all the remaining cards and combine them in a second pile, on the right. This is your Fallout pile.

Experience Pile

If you have two or more red cards in your Experience pile, you get Experience.

Fallout Pile

Take the highest ranked card in your Fallout pile and read its value:

| Highest Card | Character Is | | Jack of Spades | Dying | | 9, 10, J | Mortally Injured | | 6, 7, 8 | Injured | | 3, 4, 5 | Long-term fallout | | A, 1, 2 | Short-term fallout |

Dying means you're done.

Mortally Injured means that you must win a healing conflict against the cards in your fallout pile or die.

Injured means you must choose 2 Long-term fallout, and you may be in need of medical help: draw one card for each point of Body you have. If you can't match your highest fallout card, you're in need of medical attention!

For a healing conflict, draw the healer's Acuity + your Body vs. all the cards in your fallout pile.

Note: in regular Dogs, you add Demonic Influence to this, too. If healing conflicts feel too easy, add some cards along those lines. The best way would be to treat Demonic Influence as a single Trait (just as it is in regular Dogs, really). Something like this:

1d10 - regular 2d10 - strong 3d10 - significant 4d10, 5d10 - significant and strong

Miscellaneous Conflict Stuff

NPCs and fallout: Remember the option to keep a card for a followup conflict: when an NPC takes fallout we don't really care about, the GM should give their highest fallout card to anyone initiating a followup conflict.

Cutting your losses: if you give, you get to keep your second best card (still on the table) for a followup conflict. (Note: Maybe it should be just your best card?)

Fallout Options

Experience

add 1 to a Stat add a new regular trait or relationship add a new troublesome trait or relationship add a new belonging make a trait significant change a trait's type (strong, regular, troublesome)

Short-term

spend time alone treat a trait as troublesome for the next contflict subtract one 1 from a Stat for the next conflict (maybe "discard your best card in the next contflict" is easier than "-1 to a Stat"?)

Long-term

subtract 1 from a Stat add a new troublesome trait or relationship lose a belonging make something you already have troublesome (trait, relationship, or belonging) make a troublesome trait significant