The Changing of the Guard (Mouse Guard)

Game Master Kobold Catgirl

Hunter 4 + Vivian + George: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 3, 2, 6, 3, 3) = 18

I assume this is what you meant. Also my rolls are horrible.

That looks right. Unless I'm mistaken, our Disposition is 5, then. Maybe whenever George gets to make a roll, he'll tap some of that good luck we're apparently banking. ;-)

Should I do something?

Vivian is correct—you have 5 Disposition.

Snake Disposition: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4) = 27 This stubborn garter snake gets 11 Disposition. Its Goal: Get a tasty snack!

Alright, Thom. You now need to choose actions for the first round.

Choose three actions from Attack, Maneuver, Defend and Feint. Assign one to each of your teammates, and yourself, in the order you want them to be carried out. These three actions will constitute the first round, and will go up against three actions I privately choose for the snake. You can choose one action multiple times (so, "Vivian Attack/Thom Attack/George Attack" is a valid, if risky, strategy), but each mouse only gets one action to play out per turn.

Because this is a Fight Animal conflict, Fighter or Hunter are used for Feint and Attack actions, while Nature or Loremouse are used for Defend and Maneuver actions.

Defend: Vivian
Attack: Thom
Feint: George

Are they all your skills, Viv? I couldn't find anything related to the battle other than Nature so I had to put you down for defend, even though George would be better at that.

You won't be able to match actions to "mouse with the highest skill" very often, anyways. Aren't supposed to.

Post tonight.

That's correct, Thom. Especially when we still had Sach, everyone seemed to have combat covered, so I invested my abilities elsewhere.

Feint:

Going to lunge at the snake swinging my sword, and then veer off in the last moment, presenting my shield as an easy target.

Feint(Figher): 4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 5, 4) = 14

Not bad three successes

In this case, whether or not you roll depends somewhat on the action combination.

In this case, Vivian goes first with Defend, countering the snake's Attack. Also, you should automatically assume the others are aiding you—they are free to explain how, exactly, but that's a +2d6.

Attack vs. Defend is a very linear combination—if the snake gets higher, it decreases your Disposition. If you get higher, you increase it. Each is "by the margin of victory". Defend is therefore a way to recover, reinforce, or otherwise shore up defenses.

Ah, okay. so adding Thom & George: 2d6 ⇒ (3, 2) = 5 to

Defend (Nature): 3d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 6) + (3) = 20

still gives us three successes on my Defend vs. the snake's Attack.

Ah good Vivian and Thom: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 3) = 4

Snake Attack: 6d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 1, 4, 3, 5) = 22

A tie: No harm, no foul, unless someone wants to use a trait against themselves to break the tie. This means the snake wins the action, but you do gain a Check for later.

So how this works is you generally post flavor with the action. Otherwise, after all, it's just a rather boring Rock-Paper-Scissors abstraction. How is Vivian Defending? How are Thom and George assisting her?

The snake lunges forward, seeking to sink its fangs into Thom's torso.

George charges the snake swinging his sword madly, so that the glint of the blade would definitely catch its eye, veering off at the last second and presenting his shield as an attractive target, hoping that the snake would turn towards him thus presenting its neck as a viable target for Thom.

Thom had hung himself low, aware of how the snake was preparing itself to strike at him. When George caught it's attention, Thom lunges forward to sink his spear through the snake's scales.

Am I able to use Bold to win us the action? Do I roll for that?

That's how you assist my defend, George? Or is that meant to be your feint-flavor? Just clarifying for describing my post.

Faint flavor/assist defend

What now? Round 2?

I assumed it was defend flavour - hence why my attack might allow me to use my Bold trait to tip this turn in our favour

This is for my attack roll btw:

Hunter 4 + 1 (Viv) + 1 (George): 4d6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 5, 1) + (6) + (6) = 24

If I need to roll to trigger my Bold trait for the current round of Defence, go ahead and roll for me GM to progress this along.

Let's slow down—Vivian's Defend goes first, and that's what I need flavor for. Everything else happens after, and it's difficult to keep track of things when everyone is acting at once. It also makes the narrative more confusing.

Also, I may have been unclear about the key detail about using a trait to break the tie: When you do that, you are breaking the tie against your side. This causes you to lose, but you gain a check, which is useful later.

What is Vivian doing?

Adrenaline kicks in, and Vivian bounds forward. As the snake snaps at Thom, Vivian swings her rucksack in time, and it catches in the terrible predator's open jaw. "Quickly!" she yells, already panting.

Seem about right for a tie?

I'll give you a Tool bonus for that, particularly since you just sacrificed your rucksack to get it.

1d6 ⇒ 4 The patrol gains one Disposition!

The snake flinches away as Thom fends it off with his spear, and turns to attack the loud, shiny mouse with the shield instead. As it's lunging to strike, Vivian leaps in the way.

The snake careens back with a hiss. It shakes its head, struggling to dislodge the rucksack. It tries to swing its immense body in the way, protecting its head and stuck-open mouth from injury.

You have it on the defensive! Thom is up for the Attack.

Snake Defend: 6d6 ⇒ (4, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3) = 16

Thom beats the snake by a whopping 3 points. What's everyone doing for the Attack?

"Now's the time to strike! Good going, Viv!" Thom yells, Lunging ever forward, taking this opportunity to drive his spear through the snake's scales, and pull out and strikes in a new area.

Good one lass! yells George and lunges forward waving his shield in the snake's face in order to make it rear and attempts to stab it in its weak underbelly.

Vivian holds firm to the pole of her sack, struggling to push against the roof of the snake's mouth in an effort to keep it off balance.

Thom spears the snake in the side, then lunges again, aided by George's and Vivian's distractions, and stabs it in the underbelly. The snake cringes away.

George's turn: Feint vs. Feint!

Fighter or Hunter applies to this test. Whoever gets the higher result subtracts the margin of success from the enemy's total roll.

Feint(Figher): 4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 5, 4) = 14

These are three successes, not counting Vivian's and George's aid. What are you doing?

George is seemingly attacking the snake, making it focus its attention on him and then veering off in the last moment so as to expose its weaknesses to Thom.

Oh, sorry, I meant Vivian's and Thom's aid. You guys helping out?

Of course!

"Drive it back into the underbrush!" Thom hisses, trying not to get the snake's attention while George was trying to distract it.

Vivian, her hands still manning her pole, adds to the confusion. She erupts into squeaks of the highest pitch she can muster: "HEYWOAHBIGGUYOVERHEREHERESNAKEYSNAKEYSNAKEYHOWDOESMYRUCKSACKTASTEHUHCANIHA VETHATBACKWHENYOUDONE?!"
Don't know if mice really 'squeak-speak' in Mouse Guard or how it works, but I think you get the idea. ;-)

Viv;Thom: 1d6 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 3
Snake Feint: 6d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 3, 1, 5, 4) = 22

The snake lets out a loud hiss. It uncoils, head moving slowly towards the considerably smaller George. But just as it seems the distraction worked—just as Thom is moving up with the spear—all three mice realize something.

They forgot about the tail.

The other side of the snake suddenly sweeps out, catching Thom off-guard. It hits him in the chest and sends the patrol guard flying!

The Patrol loses this Feint, costing them 1 point of Disposition.

Turn 2: We need another action lineup from Thom. George cannot go first this time—no mouse can go twice in a row.

Thom - Attack
George - Feint
Vivian - Defend

Alright, Thom, roll your Attack versus the snake's Maneuver. Maneuver's a bit tricky with regards to its flavor (exactly what the snake is doing changes depending on what is rolled, as you'll see) so I'll let you go first.

What are you doing, and how are the others helping?

Thom gets unsteadily back to his feet, and sees that the snake has regained some ground. After taking a deep breath, he charges forward, yelling. Once he's close enough, Thom starts side stepping around near the snake's head, jabbing his spear upwards towards it, in an attempt to drive it back.

"Hyah! Hyah! Away you horrible beast!"

Hunter 4 + Vivian 1 + George 1: 4d6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 2, 2) + (4) + (2) = 13

Bugger!

Vivian lays still as she slowly draws a throwing knife, then rolls onto her feet and sends the blade flying from the flanking side of Thom's spear attack.

George proceeds to flank the snake and starts rapping his sword on his shield yelling at the snake and then lunges forward at her, again veering off in the last possible instant.

Snake Maneuver: 6d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 6, 3, 2, 3) = 23

The snake rears back as Thom springs at it. At the same time, Vivian's dagger lodges in its side, causing it to hiss with panic. Its flailing causes several of the dryer brier branches to snap off, coming down around it and forcing Thom and George to leap back.

The snake surges up into the higher branches of the brier, and suddenly the patrol finds itself looking up at a snake nearly seven mouselengths off the ground, looming over them with indignation in its double-lidded eyes.

Snake wins by two points. It Gains Position, granting it a +2D advantage to its next action. Had the snake won by one point, it would have Impeded you, and had it won by three or more, it would have done both (I haven't been using weapon bonuses yet in this fight, mainly because I forgot about them until midway through, so Disarm wouldn't really do that much).

And now another Feint vs. Feint, huh? Well, it's the same as before. George, roll me a Fighter or Hunter (or Nature, if you choose to use that), opposing the snake's. Feel free to use aforementioned boosting options.

George takes out a dagger from his belt and flings it at the snake, trying for it to miss it narrowly and draw it's attention from the mice below.

Fighter+Vivian+Thom: 4d6 + 1d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 2, 6) + (2) + (1) = 23

If I'm using a weapon bonus then 1d6 ⇒ 4

Neat, so either 3 successes or 4 successes

Vivian runs wide circles on the ground below, another dagger in hand. At multiple points, she looks poised to throw the weapon, only to dart away, baiting the snake to overextend itself.

Different weapons apply different benefits. Knives apply certain benefits in Maneuvers—you get an auto-disarm if you win the roll, essentially—and Attacks. When throwing a knife for an Attack, it becomes a Versus test against other Attacks, meaning you inflict damage equal to the margin of success (as opposed to Independent Attacks, where you both roll and deal out effects unaffected by the other's check) and an Independent test against Maneuvers.

Daggers don't gain any benefit against Feint, notably. Spears grant +1D to Feint and a +1D to Defend. Swords, meanwhile, give a +1D to any one action type, chosen at any point during the fight. If you guys want, we can start using weapons now, but remember that the snake has its own weapons to worry about. :P

EDIT: Oh, and the sling gets the Missile trait, which means against all weapons save slings and bows, Attack vs. Attack is a Versus test, rather than Independent. It also gives a +1D to Maneuvers.

I say we leave weapons til next time!

Thom makes jabbing motions with his spear, trying to scare the snake into retreating.

I'm with Thom. Going to get confusing jumping in halfway through. Next time for sure though.

Snake Feint (position!): 6d6 + 2d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 4, 4, 1, 2) + (5, 2) = 26

The garter snake looks between the three mice, struggling to decide who to target. Its tail sweeps out at Thom, but either by design or by pure unlucky accident, this easily-dodged attack causes the entire snake to slip and fall from its perch. It lands almost right on top of George, nearly crushing the little mouse and trapping him within its coils. Initially, it doesn't seem to have even noticed him, but getting away without it catching him won't be easy.

Snake wins by 1 point. Patrol loses 1 point of Disposition.

Alright, now it's Vivian's Defend alongside the snake's Defend. This is an Independent test—what you roll has no bearing on what the snake accomplishes, and vice versa. The Obstacle of this challenge is 3, meaning for every success above 3 you roll, you gain 1 point of Disposition. So, if you got 5 Successes, you'd gain +2 Dispo.

Snake Defend: 6d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 1, 4, 2, 3) = 12

Thinking it's bought a moment's respite, the snake attempts to swallow Vivian's pack whole. It appears to choke on a skillet, and is unable to achieve its goals.

Vivian Defend (Nature @4; Sick @-1): 3d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 6) = 10Thom, George: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8

Before I continue, do we lose Disposition if I fail here? I'm considering spending a fate to explode the sixes, but I wanna know the cost of failure first.

No, you just don't achieve anything this round.

I'm okay with that, then.
Vivian calls to the others as she leads them towards cover in another thick patch of briars. "Over here!" Sick as she is though, she doesn't get there before the snake recovers...

New round: Thom, give us another set of actions. Vivian cannot go first.

George - Attack
Vivian - Defend
Thom - Feint

Alright, George, roll your Attack vs. the snake's Maneuver.

The snake finally takes note of George, still caught within its coils, and begins to tighten itself around him. George finds himself in a rapidly shrinking space as the coils draw closer and closer.