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Greetings,
I am looking into Mouse Guard as a possible RPG to play with older children ages 10 to 15 at a school where I work. I am inspired to do this because of my own love for the Redwall books and because I have read in a review that Mouse Guard really encourages teamwork and cooperation. However, I have a few questions about how the game plays.
1, Just how simple are the rules? Does a person need to read the whole book before playing or could I explain it to the child as play progresses?
2, How important is a table top map to the game? Could it be played without a grid map and miniatures? The children have visual impairments so this may be something of a hindrance if precise movement of figures is required.
3, What dice are used? I heard that it was only d6's.
4, Is it possible to create adventures that mimic the Redwall books style or is the style very different? Is there magic?
5, Just how pronounced is the teamwork in the game? The more the better. I'd like a game where combat is not the focus. instead I want problem solving and critical thinking skills. That will help me sell the idea to parents and my supervisor.
If someone could help me out with these questions that would be great. I noticed that the book itself is on back order on Paizo. It is still being published right?
As a side note, how would the game work in a PBP format?
1. Rules are pretty simple. Character creation is a step by step process you walk them through and is a lot of fun! There really is not a lot of math or rules you have to constantly keep in the back of your head.
2. You don't need a map at all. There is no movement system in battle, it's all description based. The better your vocabulary and ability to describe a scene, the more entertained the kids will be. This really is a story driven game.
3. There are only d6's used.
4. You could make any kind of adventure you like that has to deal with sentient mice and animals. The normal game only accounts for a couple sentient species, with mice being the only real civilized race.
5. This game is 100% teamwork. The more they work together the better they will do. Usually supporting a member of the team who is good at certain this or that task. Even combat is not combat focused and many 'combats' are non-combat in nature, such as fighting the terrain, weather, an argument, and so on.
If you buy this book I would recommend buying the novels as well. Everything is beautifully illustrated and well written. Only one person writes the rules for the Mouse Guard RPG and they can be a tad open ended at times, so don't be afraid to wing it if something isn't spelled out for you. Remember, this game is about the story.
Regarding PBP, it can absolutely work in that kind of environment. I ran it over a chat program, and here is an example of a couple sessions of mine with just one player.
Adventures of Cheddar
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1. First, this is a Luke Crane game. If you are used to traditional DnD and looking for that sort of game system then this is not it. I like Luke Crane's Burning Empires and Mouse Guard but I know that not everyone can understand a 'story game' system (I'll explain more on this point later).
The Mouse Guard rules are a simplified version of Luke Crane's Burning Wheels and Burning Empire games.
The game comes with introductory characters pre-made and making characters is fairly simple.
2. This is actually a strength of the game because a 'map' is really not needed in the way it is for say DnD (especially 4th ed DnD). Combat is very 'different' from 'traditional' RPGs. Combat (a better would be conflict as it may or may not involve really the crossing of swords) starts by deciding what you want to achieve. Sometimes deciding what you want to achieve is the death of an opponent but it could be just to get them to retreat or to give them a lasting scar. Each person sets their 'aim' in the conflict.
Combat is fought in a series of exchanges or rounds but these do not map to one attack on one round. They instead have a feel that at this point in the conflict things were going well for your character or they were going poorly for your character.
Combat ends when the first person is decided to have 'reached' their objective in the fight (usually determined by scoring a number of hits but these do not map to hit points like in DnD but are just progression points for that fight).
Conflict ends at this point and the loser accepts the 'aim' of the winner but gets to negotiate a consequence upon the winner based upon some variation of their personal 'aim' going into a fight.
For example, two characters get into a fight over the right to dance with a girl. Both characters might start with the aim of knocking out the loser. The characters fight the conflict and one is declared the winner. The loser accepts that they are knocked out but did well enough in the conflict that he states the winner has to accept a black eye so the girl will know that the winner was in a fight and might come looking for her after wards.
It is this negotiation on conflicts of aims going in and results after wards that 'bothers' 'traditional' role-players but I like it as it gives more 'range' to what is going on. It is very different though from your WoW with the HP bar and reaching 0 meaning you 'died'.
3. The game uses d6s but it could just as easily use coin tosses. The actual number generated is a 50/50 per 'die'. A number of 1-3 is a failure on a die and a 4-6 is a success. This is why you could use any type of die or a set of coins and still play. The number of success on a roll is the measure. If you have a skill of 4 then you roll four dice and count the number of success.
4. There is no magic system in the book though they have an alchemy which is basically good chemistry. The technology of the book is medieval and books are reflective of this but they are 'intelligent' mice while most other animals are less 'intelligent'. You might have to do a bit of 'redesign' if you wanted other 'intelligent' species in the game.
5. Each mouse guard has a single weapon but mice are not 'violent' creatures. Mice have to often fight against their nature to avoid combat. Teamwork is encouraged because in a conflict, players can 'give' dice to their partners to help them succeed. This is also different from 'traditonal' DnD in that not every player is a principle in a conflict. Players are broken into 'teams' usually of two to three people when possible with each 'team' choosing an objective. One person on the team is the 'principle' and the others choose to aid or hinder that person's efforts.
A conflict could be anything from dealing with crossing rivers, defending a town from a snapping turtle, or other such activities.
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Look up Luke Crane and reviews of his games. Look for podcasts of people playing the game to decide if this is for you. It is a rewarding way to play but it is not for 'everyone'.
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A good resource for other game ideas.
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Thank you Scipion and Smerg for your thoughts and insights. I especially liked the example of play you shared Scipion. That gave a pretty clear idea about how a game session will look. So far the game looks promising. I will also be checking out some of the linked articles on that website Smerg. There are a few that caught my eye. Thank you both again. If anyone has any further insights feel free to share.
One thing I did forget to mention. This system encourages players to take actions which might fail, because the only way to progress your skills is through both success and failures. I really liked that aspect of the game.
Not that I've seen. It's something I have been considering though. Maybe after the Superstar is over I'll try.