Fear the Mouse's page

Quiet. We're not doing this right now.

I think Vivian nailed it. Go ahead and mark those points down. Good session, everybody! Feel free to post any summaries of future intentions—if we continue this story, those future intentions will define the next session's GM's Turn.

While George calms himself down, Thom and Vivian prepare a healing poultice with George's herbs. Later, Thom places it over George's eye, carefully dabbing with a cloth at areas he believes to be infected and gingerly reopening the wound in places that need to be cleaned.

Vivian reads the journal in quiet. She's not sure what to make of what she reads, but one thing rapidly becomes clear: Rosalee's life was not easy. And her death was most definitely no accident. The former guardmouse has been poisoned.

This session is complete, since you're out of Checks, but the mission is not. Now we move to the Rewards.

Looking over these, which do you think the mice really had a chance to roleplay out? This should be a group exercise—look at other characters and really weigh their actions.

Fate Points: If we decide someone Worked Towards their Personal Goal (but failed to accomplish it), they gain one Fate point. If we decide they Acted on Their Belief, they gain one as well. If we decide they Played an Instinct (performing the action at the proper time during the game), they gain one as well.

Persona Points: You earn a Persona point if you Accomplished Your Goal. You earn a Persona point if you Played Against a Belief (in a "cool and dramatic fashion" where we could tell it was going against the mouse's values). A Persona point is allotted to the MVP (the mouse who made the most crucial contribution towards the mission), the Workhorse (the mouse who had all the right skills and made all the rolls to keep things moving), and the Embodiment (the mouse who best embodied his or her conditions during the game). You can't be both the Workhorse and the MVP, and there doesn't always have to be an Embodiment award given out.[/ooc]

Note that this isn't a super serious competition or anything. Just note bits of roleplaying you thought really worked for these.

I'll be on the train all day tomorrow, but I'll give my thoughts Tuesday!

It'll last a while, but it's not permanent.

You could use a trait, or Act With Nature (though that only offers one extra die, really). The others can aid you, too. If you really want to stack the dice in your favor, you can Tap Nature. This is different from Acting With your Nature—essentially, you add your whole Nature skill to what you roll already.This will tax your Nature no matter what, though—by 1 if you succeed and by the margin of failure if you fail.

Looking around Rosalee's hut doesn't have to use up a Check, unless you're specifically looking for evidence or something like that.

Otherwise, everything you listed is correct. Notably, you cannot offer aid on these rolls.

Yes, Thom could spend his own check and make a Healer test. The good news is, mice can aid on that if they have a pertinent skill (such as Healer or Scientist). The bad news is, if you fail, it automatically defers to the "permanent -1 to a stat" option. Injured is Ob 3, Sick Ob 4.

Looking around the shack as George takes a moment to calm down, Vivian is unable to find anything of substance—until she realizes that this is because she's avoiding one particular area. She finds a small book tucked beneath Rosalee's body, still held in the dead mouse's pale paws. It is labeled: Rosalee's Journal.

You have two options for getting rid of the Sick condition. First, at the cost of a Check, you can make an Ob 4 Will test. If you get 4 successes, you fight it off. If not, it will persist until you find a healer. There are a number of herbs in this hut—you could potentially use them to help cure your sickness or George's injury (as a +1d6 tool), but not both of you.

Unfortunately George cannot get rid of his injury yet—he must first get rid of the Angry condition. That's an Ob 2 Will test. If he succeeds, the condition is alleviated. If he fails, it sticks with him. He must describe what he does to make the anger pass—taking a walk, reading poetry, etc.

Because he only has one check, George cannot roll to remove his Injury or find a healer. Alternatively, both of you have a second option: You can save your check and automatically remove the Injured or Sick conditions, but at the expense of permanently reducing one ability or skill (except Resources and Circles) of my choosing. For instance, Vivian's fortitude is unable to fully recover, or George loses the eye. George still must be un-angry first for this to be an option.

Running out of options, Thom is forced to make quiet contact with a young mouse. He directs the patrol to Rosalee's house, though he warns them, "She's supposed to be crazy. Used to be a guardmouse, they say." It's then that he notices the cloaks the mice are wearing and gives them a suspicious look.

The patrol proceeds to the indicated house along the edge of town. It's more of a shack, really. The windows are shaded, but the door is unlocked.

A foul stench greets the mice as they enter. The interior is a mess. A shelf full of books has been slammed partially away from the wall, and several books litter the floor. A pot of something—possibly stew—lies upended nearby them, quietly rotting away. But this is not the source of the smell.

On the floor, next to a cot, lies the body of Rosalee. A broken teacup is still gripped in one of her paws. From the smell of things, the former guardmouse has been dead for several days now.

END OF GM'S TURN.

Welcome to the PLAYER'S TURN. This is your chance to wrap up personal goals, flesh out characters, go shopping, try to get rid of conditions, do miscellaneous tasks, and pursue loose ends (such as investigating this new development). Each of you gets a single free check, and since I don't believe anybody played any traits against themselves, that's all you have. This does rather limit your options. You can use this check to get a single test (or potentially even initiate a conflict).

Some actions won't require a test, though, so just tell me what you guys want to do.

Perhaps, once you're in town. And oops, I just cheated the players. I'll pretend that was some clever compromise negotiation tactic.

The patrol at last reaches the wayward town of Pebblebrook. It isn't an especially large settlement—there are perhaps forty mice at most living here—but nonetheless the guards have the distinctly nervous sensation of being watched as they walk through. Nobody approaches them, or expresses concern over their condition. But the guardmice are definitely being noticed.

First priority is to find the one contact you mice have in this town.

To George's eyes, a number of things happen almost simultaneously. The snake lunges towards him. Vivian swings her frying pan downwards. Thom attacks with both spear and sword, aiming for the snake's exposed belly. And George, giving a fierce warcry, rushes forward to meet the serpent, swinging his blade in a wide and deadly arc. His sword impacts something as hard as rock. There is a loud CRACK.

George's injury isn't fatal. The eye may even yet be saved. But the garter snake's ordinarily mild venom has already infused the bloody gash.

Conflict Lost: The garter snake is driven off, but only temporarily due to its wounds. Worse, George has been poisoned. He gains the Injured condition, and takes a -1D penalty to Nature, Will, Health and skill tests. Attempting to remove this condition will be explained once the Player's Turn starts, which will be soon—I'm just giving the mice a moment to react in-the-moment.

We can go with that, if the others like it.

6d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6) = 29

The snake lets out a shrill hiss as the mice bear down on it. George rushes it head-on, and it turns to face him, to meet his charge—

And with five successes, that is a victory for the snake. You did manage to severely reduce its Disposition, however, which means you net a Major Compromise.

In short, the snake achieves its goal (get a tasty snack!). However, because you brought its Dispo so low, you get to come very close to achieving your goal or thwarting it. What do you want out of this fight?

One possibility: You temporarily drive off the snake, but it will return later. Feel free to drop in your own suggestions, or how this works. Compromises are an important part of the game!

Thom? Don't want to make George give up that 4!

And what are Vivian and Thom doing to help?

Thom distracts the snake for a critical moment, and Vivian and George both deliver devastating blows!

Next turn: Thom, assign three more actions.

6d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 3, 2, 4, 4) = 20

Vivian scrambles onto the snake's tail, held steady by George. The snake lunges for her, and she has a split-second to regret this reckless tactic—before she is struck in the face by a skillet. Panicked, Thom lunges, and his spear catches on one of the straps of the bag stuck in its mouth, dislodging it!

Vivian's bag comes tumbling out, knocking Vivian and George off of the snake's tail and onto the ground.

Snake wins with 3 Successes to your 2: Patrol loses 1 Disposition.

And now Thom is up to Feint. The snake chose to Defend, which means that you slip entirely past its guard and get to inflict as many points against its Disposition as you achieve Successes!

George and Thom?

It is probably the main conflict of the GM's Turn (the Player's Turn might have more to do, admittedly). Now seems a good time to explain how you get these resources back.

Traits are refreshed every session. That is to say, using a trait to help yourself can be done once per session per trait, unless you have a trait higher than Level 1 (which I don't think anyone does). Using a trait to hinder yourself has no such limitation.

Fate Points aren't recovered automatically. Instead, you earn Fate Points by acting strongly in accordance with your character's Belief, working towards your personal Goal (but not accomplishing it), and playing your Instinct when it applies. At the end of the session, we go over the Goal, Instinct and Belief to check these for everyone.

Persona Points can be recovered by accomplishing your Goal or playing against your Belief in a "cool and dramatic fashion". The latter can be tricky to quantify, but it's essentially about breaking a Belief for a compelling in-character reason. You can also gain Persona Points by being the best "embodiment" of your conditions and traits, both positively and negatively, and by being judged to have made the greatest contribution towards the completion of the mission.

Nature can on occasion be taxed, though nobody's been eager to try using it yet. Nature is restored during the Winter session, or by providing the "prologue" (recap) at the start of new sessions, or by missing a session.

Effectively, once one of these resources is used, it's gone for the rest of the session. I have really enjoyed running for this group, and I certainly wouldn't mind coming back to the patrol at some point, so it would come up if we ever did that.

George realizes that the snake is closing its coils much faster than he'd guessed. Taking advantage of Vivian's and Thom's frantic distractions, he makes his escape. Vivian and Thom are too hurried to land any serious blows against the snake's hard scales, but at least George is in the clear.

Alright, let's get Vivian's Defend vs. the snake's Attack. This is a pretty simple matchup—if you get higher, you gain Disposition, if it gets higher, it takes away your Disposition, so let's see what you've got.

Snake Maneuver: 6d6 ⇒ (2, 2, 1, 4, 2, 5) = 16

That's a tie, unless George wants to use a trait to break the tie against the patrol. Follow-up post will be put up shortly.

And what do Vivian and Thom do?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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?

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?

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?

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.

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.

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

Post tonight.

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.

Alright, this is a Fight Animal conflict. Next, Thom must roll Disposition. This will determine how long you can stay in the fight—it's basically your "Team HP". Test your Hunter or Fighter (your choice) and add it to your Health score. Assume the other two are offering aid automatically.

1d6 ⇒ 2

Thom advances to examine the bird's corpse. Looking closer, he recognizes that the head has been twisted clean off. This squares with something George recalls about a large, dangerous, clever omnivore called a "raccoon".

But Thom has gotten slightly too close in his inspection, and as he hears a sudden hiss, he regrets that oversight. A large garter snake, attracted by the smell of something to eat and having just awoken from its hibernation, rears up from within the brier patch!

Failure: Twist! You get your information, but now you have to handle the hungry snake you've startled.[ooc]

[ooc]This is a Conflict—a more complex and high-stakes Obstacle, essentially. First off, you need a Team Leader. Thom is the one who initiated the conflict, so we'll go with him.

The Team Leader, Thom, must choose a conflict goal (though I encourage anyone to pitch in suggestions). This is what you hope to accomplish in this scene. Depending on how well or poorly you do, you may be able to accomplish part, all or none of it. What your Goal is will also help us determine what sort of conflict this is—a Fight Animal conflict, a Chase conflict, etc.[/ooc]

The snake has its own goal, but you don't know exactly what it is yet. An example, very simple goal for the mice would be, "Drive off the snake".

Yes, he could.

I forgot to mention one more option: You can invoke a trait that you believe is relevant to gain a +1d6 to the test. You can only boost a roll with a trait once per session.

Yes, you may. Go ahead and reroll 3d6!

Thanks, Vivian, for fielding that information—I've been kept busy all day. You start the game with 1 persona point and 1 fate point.

Loremouse and Hunter work. That sounds like a justifiable use of your Legends of the Guard-wise.

I probably wouldn't let the sword serve as the tool. It's okay if you can't think of a tool—obstacles in Mouse Guard, as you've probably noticed, are not binary "pass/fail" rolls. Failure does not mean the story stops, it means the story changes. Sometimes there is no clear tool for a task.

Examining the injuries is an Obstacle 4 Heal check.

Wises can be used in three different ways. First, you can use a Wise in place of aiding—this grants the same +1D benefit, but insulates you from conditions taken on from failure. Obviously, this usage doesn't help you here.

Second, you can spend a fate point to reroll any single failed die on your test related to your wise by invoking a Deeper Understanding.

Third, you can invoke "Of Course!" to spend a persona point and reroll all failed dice on your test related to your wise.

Other ways to boost your roll include:

1. Acting with your Nature (you get to use your Nature score), but as this is outside your Nature, you run the risk of taxing your Nature by the margin of failure.
2. You can use some sort of tool you come up with to gain +1D to the roll.
3. You can Tap Nature by spending a persona point (add all your Nature dice to the normal roll), but this will tax your Nature whether you succeed or not.
4. Finally, you can spend a fate point to reroll any sixes you get, rendering them "exploding dice".

The mice do their best to sort out their map, but they're both too tired to stay up too late. The patrol sleeps lightly.

The next morning, the patrol sets out once more from Barkstone—this time on the road to Pebblebrook. This leg of the journey is much easier, and the day is pleasant and warm, giving Vivian some respite from her chills.

What could do this? Something very dangerous to mice, perhaps. Investigation is required.

Obstacle: Determine what killed the bird. This is most likely a test of beast knowledge, unless you guys think of something totally out of left field. Who will step forward to lead the attempt?

Sorry, guys. An important aspect of the Mouse Guard RPG is that the mission has to come first. The mice can entertain the possibility of delaying the mission, but it's not an actual option within the narrative. That's the nature of the GM's Turn.

Within the story, Vivian's sickness isn't debilitating, and the patrol can't spare a member—Gwendolyn has already stated your patrol is smaller than it should be for the mission. You could conceivably leave her behind—the problem being, of course, that this excludes her player from the rest of the GM's Turn. That's a bit rough.

Nobody who could come by at such short notice," the apprentice says, grimacing. "Um...perhaps if you could wait until tomorrow, the herbalist could come by at noon."

George knows that the patrol can't afford such delays, especially since the actual treatment could take all day. Lockhaven is perpetually understaffed and needs its mice on the move. The mission is supposed to take priority.

Does anybody want to do anything here? Elseways, we'll move on to the morning.

The innkeeper's apprentice nods and scampers off, looking concerned.

The meltwater hits Vivian like a punch in the gut. She grabs onto the remnants of the bridge and ties, her legs kicking frantically to remain afloat, her paws suddenly clumsy from numbness. When the knot is done, she kicks off the eastern bank and swims with all her little might. Adrenaline gives the spry tenderpaw extra strength, and though a few times she is nearly knocked off her course, George's end of the rope always keeps her from being totally swept off.

The mice hurry on and make it to Barkstone before nightfall. Vivian, however, is still shivering and sniffling by the time they arrive. They get a room at the local inn. That night, the patrol shares a large bowl of hot broth and considers its situation.

Failure: You achieve your goal, but Vivian acquires the Sick condition, and George and Thom each gain the Angry condition because of this.

We can take a brief pause for roleplay here, and because George intended to explain more to Thom about the mission now.

Alright, this is an Obstacle 4 Health test. Roll a number of d6s equal to your Health score, +1 for the tool. Thom and George can add 1d6 each to your roll as well if they give a means of assisting. Every result of 4 or better is a Success. Any result of 3 or lower is a Snake—it doesn't count. In this case, if you get at least four successes, you succeed with no hitches.

I go over tests in somewhat more detail here.