Mouse Guard RPG

I've read the rulebook recently. Love the premise of medieval mice with swords from Outer Mice Haven fucking up predatory wildlife and getting involved in mice politics and whatnot, while Dwarf Fortress happens in background. The rules also sound amazing. I'm itching to run a game, but a few things are unclear to me:

>Is GM's Turn just GM telling the players what to roll in response to a presented obstacle? The way the book puts it, players don't really get to choose an approach, unless the GM presents them with it (e.g. roll Health or a really high Pathfinder to cross a stream safely)

>Is there a skill cap? Not that it really matters, as I doubt anyone played a campaign long enough for it to become an issue, this is more of a theory question.

>Do Will, Health and Nature, Circles and Resources all level up the same way skills do, by counting fails and passes?

>Are the books worth a read? They seem to be for younger audiences, like edgier Redwall/Warriors Mouse Edition

Also, share stories from the table if you have any, I'm really curious how the system runs.

...

The books are alright. They're not really edgy.

How much of a mandatory read are they to run a decent game, though?

>Is GM's Turn just GM telling the players what to roll in response to a presented obstacle? The way the book puts it, players don't really get to choose an approach, unless the GM presents them with it (e.g. roll Health or a really high Pathfinder to cross a stream safely)
The GM doesn't dictate approach, the GM puts obstacles in the way but the players can use any skill to resolve it, the GM is just encouraged to prep the most obvious ways of dealing with them but is still expected to be able to adapt to the players choosing to do something else.

That's nice, then.
Another question regarding GM turn: are skills like Healer, Instructor, Weather Watcher etc. supposed to only be used during Player Turn? They sound like they're only usable during times of rest, which can only happen during Player Turn.
Speaking of Healer: is there any point to not try and look for an NPC healer if you're Sick/Injured, and the healer on your team only has low skill? Fucking healing up leaves you with a permanent injury and all.

Probably not much? Maybe one of the adventures would rpobably be plenty. For running games the stuff at the back of the book is more useful. That's where they talk about different towns and industries.

Nice, I'll get to prep.
Have you played any games yourself? How was it?

I have the game and have run about half in-game year between 4-5 sessions.

Unfortunately it didn't end well.

>Is GM's Turn just GM telling the players what to roll in response to a presented obstacle?
In GM's turn you run the game as normal, the difference is that it's the GM that has narrative focus while in the Player's turn are them. When I show the game to someone I call them Mission Phase and Recovery/Preparation Phase, it makes more much sense. It the first one the GM should present something to do that will have consequences if ignored and will provide for a good adventure (for my second session it was Barkstone Mayor throwing the guards out of the town and raising it's own militia), while in the second it's the player have a chance at resting, tuning their equipment, meeting new contacts or even add their input to the story.

>Is there a skill cap?
I don't have the manual at hand but if I recall correctly it's six dice per skill.

>Do Will, Health and Nature, Circles and Resources all level up the same way skills do, by counting fails and passes?
Yes.

>Are the books worth a read?
Dunno, but i trust this guy

>it didn't end well
Aw, how come, if you don't mind me asking?
>six dice per skill
And for abilities? I gotta re-read the damn thing again, last time I searched for specific info, I couldn't find anything

Since you've run the game: did you find a way to involve a lot of player skills? Did they players find a way themselves, maybe? I'm talking about more esoteric stuff like Archivist, Glazier, Administrator and such. They sound incredibly niche...

I haven't played the game. I read the rulebook a while ago though but I don't have a group that really "gets" narrative play.

I have all the books though.

HOOT HOOT

CAW

SKREE BARK AUOO

(fox noises are so weird...)

Shit, this thread is making me want to read all these kid books

While child friendly I don't think I'd call them kid books.

The books are all worth a read. I've read them several times myself. They aren't kids books per se, but a child would enjoy them as much as an adult

staff, longsword, axe, dual daggers, and... bastard dagger? wtf is that last weapon

Maybe it's meant to be a broadsword

Is that Mouse Riddick in the second row, third from the left, under the lute mouse?

looks like a mouse tinkerer

He can see everything...

>dat blackaxe army mouse
;_;7

>that one mouse in gilded full-plate
I wonder how it feels to be the fanciest mouse in existence

Clumsy and heavy, user. Clumsy and Heavy...

It's a big boy dagger

Can you guys hold the thread up for me? I gotta sleep, but I really want to hear some mouse RPG storytime...
Have a Celanawe. How do you pronounce his name? Is he important? He seems to be important.

If my kids grow up reading this I'd be a happy father.

I sadly doubt that there's a lot of people out there who've played Mouse Guard.

Kel-an-awe
Cel-an-wee

I can't remember. They tell you in the books. I'll check in a few hours if the thread is still up.

Skill and abilites have the same cap.

>it didn't end well
>Aw, how come, if you don't mind me asking?

My gaming group it's really passive, and we always played with D&D 3.5 up until Mouseguard. A lot of our roleplaying was:
>Master (me): "You find -obstacle-: What do you do?"
>Player: "I do -this-" *rolls dice* "Success! What happens?"
>Master: "Accurate description of -this- overcoming -obstacle-

It was let's say... underwhelming but they were having fun, and so I was ok with that.

The problem is you cannot play like this in Mouseguard. The Player's turn length is given by the number of check each mice has earned during the GM's turn and checks are earned by thinking about a way to play a trait against yourself. (for example mice with the trait "Scar" could use it to give himself a malus when he tries to be reassuring)

So every time dice were involved they only told me the minimum on what their character did before rolling the dice and expecting me to explain the results.
At first I tried to remind them the importance of traits and roleplaying in dice resolution, but they kept ignoring that and as a result in every Player's turn they only had checks to cure their conditions, and sometimes not even enough to do that.

In the end there was too much to keep an eye on for me as a GM, and I wasn't satisfied with the fact that we were ignoring this new system
to continue playing like we always did, so I put the sessions on hold until I thought about a way to explain the rules better.
But that was over eight months ago, life went on for everyone and we kinda let it all go.

...

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'Kell-a-naw' is how I remember seeing it described as pronounced and if I remember rightly yes, six is the highest a skill can go.
>And for abilities?
Are you talking about traits? They were level 1, 2 or 3.

squeak

Oh shit, thread's still alive! I knew I could trust the Mouse Guard.

Shit, that sounds terrible. You give them a system where crunch and fluff are so deliciously intertwined, and they go down the path of least resistance. Condolences.

I gave the rulebook another read before sleep, and another question cropped up: do the entire party's Condition factor in Disposition? For instance, there are 3 players, all 3 are Hungry. If they all choose to participate in a conflict, do they get -3 to Disposition?

For some reason I'm really averse to guns in fantasy.

Somebody please answer these!

...

fucking furries

This isn't /pfg/ though

Page 128 (2nd edition):
"If you’re part of a team, all of the unique
conditions of the mice on that team hurt the
team’s disposition.
So if you’re Angry and your partner is Tired,
then you lose 2 points from your dispositions
for arguments.
If you’re both Angry, the Angry penalty only
counts once."

>playing a furry rpg
Will I need to provide my own bad dragon butt plug and a dog for the group to fuck?

Can you provide yourself with a cup of bleach, please

I hope some of these are useful for you, OP. I was just going to give you my reference sheets but thought I might as well upload everything I have for Mouse Guard except the core rules. Included is Realm Guard, a Lord of the Rings hack.
SS
/filegroup/mKuNngod8bkphMxWRagQsFo7rUk7P3UuEDAZNw59lPD6D3xEpZv0dLBJLOuXtIUxSFYCmZlyRHpQ2bGoGKOEdg

Thanks! I'll need to make bookmarks in my PDF for this shit.

All of this seems super useful, cheers!