The Changing of the Guard (Mouse Guard)

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

Hail all those who are able, any mouse can, any mouse will, but the Guard prevail.

Original recruitment-ish thread, for my own convenience.

Okay! Corsario, Johnnycat, Mooshybooshy and Nixie, you guys are in for the first session! Anybody who's not them but who's interested in joining can feel free to pay attention and learn stuff.

Let's go over some system fundamentals—stuff you'll need to know immediately. That means it's time to explain one of the most unique things about Mouse Guard: The session structure.

Now, there's a big question here. Is there a strong preference towards starting out with newly-made characters, or would we be alright running the first session with pregens?

Pregens can be very helpful, since they're built with the book's missions in mind, but I understand the wish to start out with fully customized mouses. It's entirely up to you guys.

I can go with Pregens, as it is my first time...

Any chance for magic?

Magic is not canonically "a thing". Mouse Guard is a magic-free world. If it does surface, it will be a major anomaly.

Damn, no chance of picking up the old wizard traditions then. I don't mind using pregen or custom statblocks.

Mind you, there could be a tradition incorporating mice called "wizards" who specialize in science or insect taming or Loremouse* or the like, if the title and "mysticalness" are what you're after. But they wouldn't actually be able to do magic. :P

*"Loremouse" refers to the skill that lets you communicate with and generally understand beasts smarter than bugs but dumber than or very different from mice.

I might just do some alchemist equivalent then. Not sure what the range of stuff that the game handles. I'll try and come into possession of the books soon.

The rules are very simple and abstract when it comes to your abilities and equipment. And because combat is only one of many possible challenges you'll be facing, alchemy will have plenty of possible applications.

Basically, when you're in a conflict, your choices come down to four options: Attack, Defend, Feint and Maneuver. They are chosen in advance, like a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors. This system is used for all major conflicts, not just combats.

Each of these options has very specific consequences:

Attack lowers the enemy's Disposition (their ability or motivation to stay in the conflict). Examples: Stabbing with a sword, exposing a key weakness in your opponent's argument, pushing through bad weather.
Defend boosts your own Disposition and holds off their Attack, if they made one. Examples: A good rebuttal in an argument, covering your tracks in a chase, picking a safer route during a journey.
Feint employs "tricksy means" to either lower the enemy's Disposition, if they Defended, or totally fails, if they Attacked. For this reason, it's a bit of a gamble. Examples: Faking a blow, agreeing with a rival negotiator only to turn around and trap them later, or sending one mouse off in another direction during a chase to confound the pursuers.
Maneuver is the most flexible of these. It basically modifies things in some way, either by disarming, impeding, or gaining position. Impeding and gaining position give, respectively, a penalty to the opponent's next roll and a bonus to your next roll. Disarming lets you eliminate an item from the field, like a weapon or article of armor, for the remainder of the conflict. Examples: Gathering food from a nearby berry bush to make the journey easier (gaining position), forcing an opponent to stop making a certain point in a debate via a call for civility (disarm)*, or leaping over a mud puddle to force your enemies to wade in after you (impede).

As you can tell, these options all leave a lot of room to interpret. Different weapons can offer different advantages (a shield benefits Defend, for instance), but otherwise the choice of tool is purely flavor for the action.

*This would mainly only apply if that point was being treated as a particularly effective one and giving them an inherent bonus. For instance, you screwed something up earlier and they get a benefit for Attacking when they bring that incident up.

Hi guys! This is Mooshybooshy's mouse. I know that my avatar is the same as Macario's, but I figure as mice, we probably look very much alike already anyway. Maybe we can be twins!

So I hope nobody minds. If it's a big problem I can change.

I also have a preference for pregens if they're cool for everybody else, because it's my first time playing Mouse Guard. Could we get a Gameplay thread active so I can post in it and track it from my Campaigns tab?

I am fine with Pregens!

Pregens it is. Once we get that information I'll update my alias (I'm keeping the character art tho).

Done! Sorry, hectic day. Apparently I'm now president of my college's terrible RPG club.

I'll get across pregen information soon. There will be four to choose from.

Congratulations!

Ah Finally you can make a difference in the world!

Alright, here we are. Here are the characters you'll be choosing from for the first session.

For this first mission, we'll be tackling Deliver the Mail, which will get more explanation when we start.

THE PREGENS

Dain
Image.
Dain is a senior member of his patrol. Together with his lifelong friend, Ingrid, he serves the guard in the name of reason and right action.

Robin
Image (sans cloak).
Robin is a tenderpaw from Barkstone. Fresh out of her artisan apprenticeship in Lockhaven (Mouse Guard recruits spend some time apprenticing under an artisan before they move into patrols), Gwendolyn, the Mouse Guard's Matriarch, has assigned her to learn under the steady and reliable Ingrid. Robin has a fearless heart and steady paws. She's ready to prove her worth to the patrol!

Baron
Image.
Baron is a tough and skilled survivalist with a heart of gold.

Ingrid
Image.
Ingrid is a lifelong friend of Dain's. She's a self-educated mouse from Sprucetuck. When she was young, she wanted to be a scientist. She was on the path to a life of learning and research when her young friend persuaded her to join the Guard.

Some Follow-up Explanations:

Many of those stats, like Skills and Raw/Special Abilities, you can probably guess: These are numbers you'll be called upon to use during the game when you attempt something. You can get a fair idea of what they mean (italicized skills, by the way, are your mouse's Specialty), but it's not that important yet. Let me know if you're curious about any of them.

The wises are basically things your mouse knows about. When they come up (for instance, when Ingrid encounters rain), the wises can be used to help in certain ways.

Traits can be used for you and against you, depending on which you prefer. When you use a trait against yourself, you get extra Checks (which means more options during the Player's Turn). They're fairly self-explanatory and open to interpretation other than that. Think about how a given trait, like Inquisitive, might be helpful or harmful. You'll see how traits can be used in this fashion during the game.

I assume the Goals are similarly clear (enough for the time being), but the Instincts and Beliefs will require some explanation. Basically, these, along with your traits, are your two greatest tools for working out what your character will do in a given situation and how they'll feel about it. Choosing to play to them or against them is a major part of the game!

Let me know if you have questions!

EDIT: Also, it's worth noting the ranks. Note that Robin is a Tenderpaw. The playable rankings are basically:

Patrol Leader
Patrol Guard
Guardmouse
Tenderpaw

A tenderpaw must have a mentor, being completely new to the field. They haven't earned their cloak yet. Ingrid is Robin's mentor.

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I know how much work goes into a post like this. Well done.

Whew! Thanks for saying so. There's probably a billion errors in that.

I can play Ingrid by the looks of it.

Alright, so we have Johnnycat taking Ingrid. That leaves Baron, the hunter guardmouse, Robin, the fearless tenderpaw, and Dain, the rational leader of the patrol.

I would very much play Dain or Baron... I guess I see which one is available.

I'll play Baron. Lead the way Dain! I've got your back!

Alright, Mooshybooshy, you okay playing Robin?

I got Dain then.

Bear in mind that none of these character choices are final. We're just stating preferences. If Mooshybooshy has a strong antipathy towards Robin, we can rethink this.

That said, also bear in mind that this is only for the first session. You're under no obligation to keep these characters after.

I shall role-play anything, anytime. Bring it on!!

No problem at all playing the new girl! Changing my character name from Lawrence to Robin!

*salutes* Ready to prove my worth to the Mouse Guard!

Excellent! We'll be getting started over the next few days.

Just to be super-clear: are we just using the statblocks or the whole characters?

You're using the whole characters, but let me know if you would like to make modifications and I'll consider them.

Aww, I wanted to be Macario the Mouse. O whale.

You might potentially want to save that original concept for when we're done with the pregens. But you can feel free to use the name in place of Ingrid's, if you prefer.

Alright, the session will begin today, later in the afternoon to evening (Pacific Time).

Nice!

Excellent! Thanks

Alright, it's about to go up. We'll take some time to let the mice interact in Lockhaven before setting out.

Thanks for the PM! I hadn't realized the gameplay thread was up!
I'll make the alias and post today.
Sorry

Figured that might be the case! Glad you're hanging around.

All good, Corsario. Glad everyone's still with us.

Guys...I have a deep, dark secret to confess.

I-I can't really read cursive. This map that we have may as well be in moon-runes for all I can decipher. I'm sorry.

I thought that might be a problem. Here's a slightly different, slightly easier to read map.

I'm about to go to bed, but I'll update the game in the morning.

And there we go. It's time to learn how Obstacles work in Mouse Guard.

Some Obstacles are more open-ended, and I'll let you suggest ways to tackle them before giving you the default, but this one is fairly straightforward (and we should keep things simple the first time anyways).

As of now, Robin has obtained 1/1 Failures and 0/2 Successes for her next advancement in Pathfinder.

You need to both fail and succeed at something in other to get better at it. This means that tests are precious things, since they're the only way to improve. It also means it gets harder and harder to keep advancing as you get better at a skill: You start failing less and less often. This is part of what makes Instructor so useful—during the Player's Turn, it allows you to offer other mice "free" tests toward improving their skills.

Thanks for bearing with this, guys. I know it's tricky at the start of a new PbP with a new RPG, but everyone's been great so far. I'm enjoying exploring this system with you all.

GM, in this post I don't understand why Robin only rolled 3 dice. She rolled 2d6 for her Pathfinder and 1d6 for Dain helping. But should she have rolled an additional 1d6 for me and another for Ingrid helping, for a total of 5d6? I'm sorry for my confusion. But if I don't understand that roll then I'm not sure how lending helping dice to ingrid as she right now should be done?

Yes, I think Mooshy just didn't notice that they were helping. There can be limits on how many mice can help (such as in a conflict, where only two mice can help at once), but there weren't any in this case. She could have rolled 5d6 in total.

Of course, it's also possible that she just deliberately turned down their aid so she could show off her skills. :P

*le gasp* Turned down our help?? ♫Brave brave brave brave sir Robin!!!♫

Mmmm I may be missing something. I thought you said we could use nature to defend. Is there a Nature skill and then our mouse nature as two separate things?

Didn't I say either Loremouse or Nature would work?

Let's give some explanation of the Nature skill.

You each have a Nature skill. Your nature represents how close you are to your mousey roots. Mice are not inherently killers, or scientists. These things go against Mouse Nature

Mouse Nature encompasses four things: Foraging, Hiding, Escaping, and Climbing. As long as your activity involves one of those things, you can use your Nature skill without penalty. This is why Nature is a valid choice for Defend and Maneuver—those activities match your Nature.

Everything has a Nature skill, but what it uses that Nature skill for depends on what it is. Most animals use it for literally everything—they're incapable of acting outside their natures, being basic beasts. Only mice and weasels are really known to go against it.

Oh, wait, I see what you're confused about.

The reason tapping Nature doesn't work here is that the action does not match Mouse Nature. Nature can always be used as the test skill for the Defend test (because Defend matches Escaping), but tapping nature always relies on what you're doing.

Ingrid's action (interposing herself between the threat and her comrades) does not match Mouse Nature, so tapping it taxes her Nature slightly.

Right, ok, but I don't have Loremouse that I can see so the only thing I could roll was my Nature 6 as the test skill, which was why I rolled 6d6.

So then the +2d6 of helping would be added to my 6d6 that I already rolled of Nature?

Well, that's the first of what I'm sure will be many Goof Master errors over the course of this PbP. Could this be the start of a beautiful relationship?