"Dogs in the Vineyard is an independently published role-playing game written by D. Vincent Baker and published by Lumpley Games. In the 2004 Indie RPG Awards, Dogs in the Vineyard was awarded Indie RPG of the Year and Most Innovative Game. In 2005 it was nominated for a Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming. It generally encourages narrativist play.
The game is set in "a West that never quite was" - loosely based on the Mormon State of Deseret in pre-statehood Utah. Players are "God's Watchdogs" (Dogs), who travel from town to town delivering mail, helping out the community and enforcing the judgments of the True Faith of the King of Life. This may involve anything from delivering new interpretations to the town's Steward to executing heretics. Dogs have absolute authority within the Faith, but not within the laws of the Territorial Authority, and so their actions can lead to conflict with the government in the East."
Source: Wikipedia, "Dogs_in_the_Vineyard," available under the CC-BY-SA License.