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Eric Neff
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt"
"Just once, I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!"
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When I ran this the first time, we kept the dice in view of players and GM.
When someone made a see or raise they would count the dice values to come up with the best bid.
This seemed to slow the flow of the game and some players complained of the "gamey" feel.
Has anyone played with the dice hidden?
I think it would work, but I would like to get some input from others who have tried.
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Renato Ramonda
Italy
Milan
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Absolutely, completely and positively in front of everybody.
Hiding the dice would make no sense at all, and would also be explicitly wrong according to the rules.
People that try to "game" the system too much will soon be disappointed, since it does not really support it: if you are willing to bring in stuff you can get endless d6 objects to roll, for example.
But use a raise that has real punch and see them fold to avoid something absolutely awful happening, or choose to escalate, creating further trouble.
Really, the hard choices come from the fiction, not from the dice.
If you or your players are looking for some challenge on a "game" level there are systems that would reward them instead of making the game worse 
(for example: Agon, DnD 4E, Anima Prime, Beast Hunters)
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DMSamuel
United States
Ithaca
New York
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I believe that having the dice in front of everyone is meant to actually make the game better. It does this because, everyone can see what the dice say, but the dice only let you know what your options are in each instance.
That means that the way you role-play your decision should get most of the emphasis in the interaction. In other words, since everyone already knows what the dice say, they will be paying more attention to how you choose to role-play the decisions made available by the dice roll.
Stated another way... It's your role-playing choice that is the emphasis and it is always hidden until you do it, therefore it doesn't matter if the dice are hidden or not.
Perhaps I should point out that it is not necessary to always match or raise whenever possible - sometimes better role-playing interactions occur when people escalate unexpectedly or back down unexpectedly (which is a point I think the poster above me was making).
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Renato Ramonda
Italy
Milan
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Seconded
Also, the GM is encouraged to fold if the dice are clearly against him, without dragging the conflict to its very end: give, and keep your best die in a follow-up conflict
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Eric Neff
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt"
"Just once, I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!"
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Thanks for all the input.
I listened to a podcast of a play session today, and I now have a better understanding of how the game flows.
My group has had little experience with indie or story games and I'm sort of the evangelist in the group. So I have to run them with no prior playing.
But I excited about running a session this Monday.
Wish me luck 
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Pete
United Kingdom
Oxford
Oxfordshire
Brofist
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox
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Yup, the others have it right.
All I'd add is that after my rolls, I like to organise my pool by die value. Left to right, lowest to highest.
Once the dice are arranged like that, it makes the pool obvious to all, including me. If someone has lots of low value dice, I can choose to give immediately before they See with lots of those low value dice and I potentially end up killing someone or giving someone a stroke. I love rolling lots of low dice 
Good luck with your game, let us know how it goes.
Cheers
Pete
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Renato Ramonda
Italy
Milan
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To add to Pete's post: sometimes as a player you might consider taking at least one or two blows, getting some d4 fallout out of some hard talk, and then Give.
This way you get experience (mechanically) and your character becomes more complex, fast... but careful: a nasty GM (that is, one that's playing well ) can make you doubt if you REALLY want to give.
If you are going to play for the first time, be sure to use a premade Town, and as the manual suggests use one that has Sin that already escalated to Murder. It's easier to understand and to play for novice players.
Later on, if you continue, you'll create your own Towns (always use the Manual's checklist, it's not a list of suggestions, it's a hard and fast rule)... and knowing your players (and their Dogs) you'll be able to tweak them.
If you have very judgemental Dogs, that like to go the way of the gun... place them in front of a Town with some petty problems, with a low Sin level. If you have pacifist dogs challenge them with some hard sin and crime.
In all cases, create towns were there is never a clear "wrong" side, an "evil" character that can be beaten and forgotten: even the sinners always have their motives, and often think they are in the right, even asking the Dogs to support them!
Oh, and if you look around there is an excel sheet that will generate NPC statblocks that follow the manual's rules: you only need to give them names on the fly when you play.
This game is really good...
Have fun, and let us know how it went!
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Eric Neff
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt"
"Just once, I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets!"
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renatoram wrote: Have fun, and let us know how it went!
I decided to go with the "Little Valley Branch" town from Jason Morningstar's site:
http://www.meekmok.com/sassy/dogs/resources.html
I had 3 players, only 1 of which had played before.
We got through character creation and 2-3 scenes in the town.
It went much more smooth than the first time I ran it. I pushed for more, but smaller conflicts. In one scene, a Dog was trying to convince a young wife that she should respect and obey her husband. After rolling, it was obvious that the Dog was going to lose. So he was faced with giving or escalating.
In one character creation, the Dog wanted to exorcise a demon. After a brutal conflict with a lot of fall out, he emerged from the room beaten and bloody with a likewise beaten but saved 8 year old girl.
We all realized that giving and/ or fall out are not bad things. It took a scene or two until we fully grasped this.
Everyone said they couldn't wait until our next session to finish the town.
Thanks for all the advice.
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