Dust Devils

Get rid of the rules review.

Character Creation

A character in Dust Devils has four Scores; Hand, Eye, Guts, and Heart. Hand is anything done with hands or body and is associated with the suit of Spades. Eye symbolizes senses and intellect and is represented by the suit of Diamonds. Guts is a character's vigor, health, courage and cool and its suit is Clubs. Lastly, Heart, which is social competence and heroic or villainous nature, of course coupled with the suit of Hearts.

You divide 13 points among the four Scores, with no higher than 5 in any one Score. Next you create two Traits in the form of similes, such as, "strong as an ox," or "stubborn as a mule." Choose a Past and a Present role, that is, what you used to be Then, and what you are Now. This is most often an occupation, but can be almost anything. For example, "Used to be a bum, but is now an outlaw." Split 4 points between the two roles. Lastly you detail your Devil and set its initial rating to 1, 2, or 3. You might also start with a 2-4 poker chips, but that's usually just for one-shots. Okay, that went fast huh, in the next section we'll break down what all these things do in-game, but first the Devil...

The Devil is central to the whole game, and the most important aspect of character generation. It represents a character's ugly side. That part of oneself that you have to fight to restrain, lest it overcomes you completely. It is usually summed up in a single word, but with a short explanation so everyone understands the Devil fully. A Devil has to be something that stays with the character no matter what, not some problem that's easily solved. The book does an excellent job of explaining what makes a great Devil, and what kind of problems to look out for. This is superb advice, so listen carefully.

At the start of every session you get to change your Devils rating. Perhaps you want the new rating to reflect the happenings of the previous session of play, but it is really up to you and none can question your decision.

You'll find that the Dust Devils character creation guidelines are so simple that you can generate very thematic western characters in no time at all. And yes, while the process is simple, it still creates characters dripping with theme.

Conflict Resolution

The conflict resolution in Dust Devils is based on Draw Poker. Yes, I realize that Matt keeps referring to Stud Poker, but trust me, it's based on Draw Poker and nothing else. So when your protagonist is in a conflict you must first state your Goal, in a simple sentence, and who opposes that goal. You use a regular deck of playing cards with two jokers to play Dust Devils. However, before any cards are dealt you have the option to bet Stakes, that is wager some or all of your poker chips on the outcome of the conflict. If you win, you double your chips; if you win over some, but lose to others, you retain your chips; but if you lose to all your opponents kiss those chips goodbye.

The Dealer, which is Dust Devils' name for the gamemaster, decides which two Scores are appropriate to the conflict at hand, and during The Deal you receive cards equal to your values in those two Scores. Part of the trick in the game becomes to frame your conflicts so you get to use the two Scores you desire. You can also spend a single poker chip for one additional card.

Now your Traits enter the game. If one Trait is applicable to the conflict, you receive one additional card in the Deal. Only one of your two Traits can ever be used in the same conflict. However, if you instead act totally contradictory to a Trait, you are rewarded with a poker chip, but of course no extra card. Your Devil works in a similar manner; if you act in accordance with it you get extra cards equal to your Devil's rating, but if you work against it you are penalized as many cards on the Deal, but given a poker chip instead.

The Draw (remember how we're using Draw Poker?) is when you can discard cards to draw new ones, but only if either your Now or Then role applies to the conflict. If a role applies you can discard cards equal to the role's value, to draw an equal number of new cards. You can also spend a single poker chip to draw one additional card.

If your hand is looking ugly, you can spend a poker chip to Fold. This means that you avoid all the consequences of the conflict. Folding cause you to lose your Stakes, if you had any riding on the conflict.

The Call is the game's term for a poker showdown, that is when you show your five card poker hand (can be less, but never more than five cards). Notice how I didn't say "your best hand"? The single highest card played determines who will be the Narrator, and sometimes you'd play a worse hand to win those honors. The Narrator has final say on the outcome of conflicts, what actually happens in the game's fiction. Ties to determine the narrator are resolved by the suit of the card; Spades over Hearts over Diamonds over Clubs. You can also bid poker chips on becoming the Narrator, in open auction fashion.

The loser of a conflict takes Harm. Remember how each Score was associated with a playing card Suit? Well now that becomes important. You take Harm equal to the value of the winning hand, from 1 (high card or a pair) to 5 (five of a kind or a straight flush). This harm must be deducted from the Scores matching the suits of the playing cards in the winning hand, but only the cards that actually form a poker hand combination apply. In poker terms, kickers only apply if they actually were used to break a tie, but normally if you won with say just a pair, then only the suits of the two cards in your pair apply to how Harm is distributed. This has a huge impact on the story.

As an example, say you're trying to talk someone out of using violence, but you win the conflict with a flush of Spades. That means your opponent must take Harm in Hand. Yup, you just caused him physical damage. The player that takes Harm divides it any way he wants in accordance with the suits played, but it's up to the Narrator to explain the Harm taken. In the above example you clearly had to hurt the poor guy, to keep him from hurting someone else. What does that say about you?

Again, you might decide to play two pair instead of a flush, because you can squeeze in an ace and a chance to become the Narrator, and also increase the chance of causing Harm to the Score you're targetting. There's a lot of tactics involved here, but it's equally fun just to go with it and always play the best possible poker hand and then roll with the outcome of the conflict.

A final point on conflicts, Narration and Harm. If you beat all your opponents in a conflict, then your goal succeeds and the Narrator must include your successful goal as part of the story, and your opponents must take Harm. If you beat some, but lose to other opponents, then the Narrator gets to decide whether your goal succeeds or fails and includes this in the story. Harm is up to the Narrator. If all your opponents beat you, then your goal usually fails. However, the Narrator has final say and can even allow partial success, but a losing hand can never inflict Harm. See how important that Narrator role can be?

To recover a Score from Harm by 1 point, you must pay a number of poker chips equal to the current rating plus 1, but thematically more important you have to frame a scene that reflects how you recover. Perhaps you split some wood to recover Hand, or do some target practice on a row of tin cans to recover Eye. This is a great opportunity to add some color to the game.

The End

The End is something unavoidable in Dust Devils. It is a mechanic that tracks when your protagonist's story will come to an end, and the final confrontation with his Devil takes place.

When you enter a conflict where you must use a Score valued at 0, then it's your last conflict. Your story ends here and now. That is unless you can delay the end. You can spend poker chips to buy cards for a 0-rated Score, which means you avoid The End... for now.

Be sure to keep your Devil firmly in mind when you're at The End. Your final hurrah should be both memorable and dramatic. When at The End you automatically win Narration, unless you're up against other characters also at The End, then you use the regular rules.

When at The End a player can spend any number of poker chips to Harm or Redeem other characters. Redemption is the only way in the game to recover a 0-rated Score. One poker chip per point of Harm caused, while the cost of Redemption is the same as for recovering Harm (the current Score's value plus 1).