Game overview This is an abbreviated guide for playing Dog Eat Dog, a story game of imperialism and assimilation on the Pacific Islands by Liam Liwanag Burke. (Buy the rules using the link below!) Together you tell the story of an island which has just been occupied by a colonial power. 0. Set up 1. Play Scenes Players go around the table, starting from the Occupation’s left, taking turns starting the narration of Scenes. 2. Between Scenes … ▪ If the Occupation was in the scene, do Judgment to award tokens based on the Rules and create a new Rule. ▪ If the Occupation was not in the scene, the Occupation player discards 1 token. 3. Ending the game The game ends when either the Occupation or all Natives have run out of tokens during a Judgment. Complete that last Judgment. If a player runs out of tokens, they cannot get any more back during the process. Then play out the Aftermath. LiwanagPress.com buy Dog Eat Dog ⇢ v1.2 Jonathan Korman miniver.itch.io 0 Set up 1. Create the Natives and the Occupation Fill out the Societies sheet: Natives — Each player, in any order, creates one Trait of the Native society, like “eat no pork”, “live in households with extended families”, or “worship the spirits of their ancestors”. Then, together, name the Native people and put that in the box at the top. Occupation — In the reverse order, each player creates one Trait of Occupation society. Then all name the Occupation society; put it on the Societies sheet. Add the names to the starting Rule on the Record sheet. 2. Assign roles to players The richest player portrays the Occupation in the story. (Really. Do this.) Put a card saying “Occupation” in front of them. They may create Occupation characters at will during play. Other players play individual Natives. Each gives their character a name and Personal Trait (like “doctor” or “very strong”) and puts those on a card in front of them. 3. Give each player tokens Each Native player gets 3 tokens. The Occupation player gets (2×Natives + 1) tokens. Societies 0 Natives Occupation 0 Record The are inferior to the Native people Occupation people . Playing a Scene 1 Set the Scene What interesting thing is your character doing in response to the situation? Where? When? Who else is there? It is often good to respond directly to a previous Scene. Play the scene Say what happens. Ham it up! Add allies, enemies, places, animals, and say what they do. Bring drama and action. Use the Conflict rules when players in the Scene disagree about what happens. Bring in more players If the Occupation is not in the Scene, Native players may enter if the Native players already in the Scene invite them. If the Occupation is in the Scene, the Occupation controls who enters the Scene. The Occupation may join a Scene at any point. Exception: Natives who have Run Amok control when they enter scenes. Ending the Scene The Scene ends when the players in it agree that it does. ▪ If the Occupation did not enter the Scene, the Occupation discards 1 token. ▪ If the Occupation was in the Scene, go to Judgment. Conflict 1 When players in a Scene disagree about what happens: 1. Negotiation All players try to talk through the story, to find an agreement about what happens. Players in the Scene may drop out of the Conflict, to not participate in later stages of Conflict if it escalates. Any player in the Scene can escalate to … 2. Chance Players in the Conflict name their preferred outcomes. Each player gets 1 die, plus 1 die for each Society Trait which supports the outcome the player wants. If the Conflict only includes Natives, players add 1 die for each character Personal Trait supporting their outcome. If the Conflict includes the Occupation, then Natives’ Personal Traits do not award dice because to the Occupation all Natives are alike. Roll the dice. The player with the highest total narrates what happens next. (Re-roll ties.) Any player in the Scene can escalate to … 3. Fiat The Occupation narrates what happens. 1 Death Native characters who have Run Amok must die by the end of a Scene they enter. Native characters who have not Run Amok may still die in Scene narration. A player in a Scene may narrate the death of any character in the Scene and if that character’s player (or another player in the scene) objects to the death, what happens is resolved with the Conflict rules. When a Native character dies, their player discards all of their tokens, and the Occupation discards 2 tokens. If the Occupation lacks 2 tokens to “pay” for a Native death they cannot narrate that death in a Scene … unless Natives have a Conflict which escalates to Fiat and the death makes sense for the Scene and Conflict. A Native player whose character has died no longer initiates Scenes or participates in Conflicts, but the player still participates in discussions which include all players, and in decisions which all Natives make together. Judgment 2 At the end of Scenes which include the Occupation: 1. Enforcement For each Rule, go around the players. The Occupation decides if the players’ characters obeyed the Rule. If a Native character broke the Rule, their player pays the Occupation 1 token. If this reduces the Native player to no tokens, the Native character Runs Amok (and thus the Occupation must discard 1 token). If a Native character followed the Rule, the Occupation player pays that Native player 1 token. If any Occupation character broke the Rule, the Occupation discards 1 token. 2. Reflection The Native players discuss the lessons of the Occupation behavior in the Scene. What behaviors did the Occupation reward, punish, model, and conspicuously avoid? Based on this, Native players devise a new Rule and add it to the Record sheet. (The Occupation player may comment in the discussion but does not participate in deciding what the Rule is.) Running Amok 2 When a Native player runs out of tokens: The Occupation discards 1 token immediately. The Native character Runs Amok, invoking special rules: ▪ Their player cannot get tokens. ▪ Their player completely controls when the character enters Scenes: they need no permission to enter a Scene, nor can the Occupation narrate them in unwillingly. ▪ The next time the character appears in a Scene, they must do something shockingly violent and destructive, and … ▪ The character must die by the end of this last Scene in which they appear. The Occupation must then discard 2 tokens, as with any Native death. ▪ If the character is in a Conflict which escalates to Stage 3: Fiat, the Occupation player does not narrate what happens — the Native player whose character is Running Amok does. Aftermath 3 1. Personal epilogues Go around the table, narrating the end of your part of the story, starting with the Occupation. If the Occupation has no tokens left, they must grant the natives local autonomy. If a Native is dead their player may, if they wish, narrate how (or whether) survivors remember them. If a Native has 0 tokens but is still alive, they must do something shockingly violent and destructive and then die, just as if they were Running Amok. If a Native has 1-2 tokens the Occupation has left them changed, embittered, and wounded. If a Native has 6 or more tokens, they have assimilated into the Occupation and adopted its values as their own. If none of these conditions apply, you can say whatever you want in your epilogue. 2. Island epilogue All of the players who still have tokens collectively decide the fate of the island and its inhabitants. If no player has any tokens left, then nobody has any say in the fate of the island — it remains a mystery. The player with the most tokens at the end of the game should play the Occupation next game …
