So, I thought the second game of Mouse Guard went really well last Thursday considering new players with new characters. (And new GM)
When I first played a couple games of Mouse Guard and it's bigger system Burning Wheel, I had a hard time figuring out how to play with the mechanics and the flow of the game. The "talking" of how you play at the table is pretty different than more traditional games like D&D. So I am glad things went as well as they did last night. Sorry for any points that where unclear Congratulations to our three Guardmice for convincing some winter-crazed villagers from getting themselves killed in the wild or by weasel.
We probably could/should have kept going to get the mail-bag from the raven but I was fixated as GM on getting to the post-session part of the game where we award MVP and get points for goals and beliefs. It reinforces what players should do for the next game because they see how the mechanics reward their playing of beliefs and traits. And also we have a clear mission for the next session: Get the mail from the damn raven.
A couple points I looked up:
- You increase trait levels, add new traits, and subtract old traits in the winter season. All the players get together and have group decisions about how traits are changed in the Reflection part of the winter season. Crazy, no?
- Skills and abilities (Nature, Health, Resources, etc) are increased with the pass/fail checkmarks like we discussed.
- The Injured condition, like Humphrey had, can be fixed by a healer with an Ob 3 roll. Tools and teamwork-help could help out. If you were without a healer, you would have to just roll your health versus Ob 4 with no help from others.
- One pass/fail check per conflict or test. The first one you do.
You can get the Mouse Guard comics at any comic book store and in the Rose Kid's Comics section of powels.
The site for Mouse Guard and Burning Wheel is below.:
http://www.burningwheel.com
Also here is a hack to turn the game into a Middle-Earth game with rangers:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/mdqeyodigtzxe25/Realm+Guard+v1.6.pdf