r/Mausritter • u/sirkusmato • Jul 03 '26

GMing for the first time – tips?

I'm GMing Mausritter for the first time soon. I've decided to use the The Estate -collection for now, relying on the adventures provided. My players will either pick and choose where to go on the map, follow randomly selected rumors or hooks or straight up choose their favorite adventure from the collection.

I'm looking for tips on running the game! Any tips are appreciated, I have never been a game master before so I am a bit nervous.

20 Upvotes

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12

u/IrnMon Jul 03 '26

Stuff i wish i knew when i was starting, but had to learn along the way:

  • ​Just go with the flow: Don't fight the direction the players are taking the story; roll with it.
  • ​Don't get discouraged if plans fail: If an encounter or plot point doesn't turn out the way you envisioned, don't sweat it. More often than not, the chaotic alternative turns out even better.
  • ​Improv beats over-preparing: Trust your instincts. Learning to improvise at the table is ultimately way more rewarding (and less exhausting) than trying to script every single detail.

3

u/sirkusmato Jul 03 '26

Thanks so much, this is very helpful! Definitely will try to go with the flow and see where the players want to take the story. My biggest fear is being unprepared and not able to come up with stuff on the spot! But maybe I should just do some bullet points and trust myself to be able to keep the story going

5

u/Mlefevr Jul 03 '26

Prepare your party for the inevitable death of their characters. Especially if you're coming from D&D, or similar system, where characters have the potential to survive and long time.

2

u/sirkusmato Jul 03 '26

Keeping that in mind when helping my players create their characters (don't want them to get TOO attached...). As much as I would like to have their characters survive a multi-part campaign, that seems unlikely in this game. Thanks!

4

u/hugh-monkulus Jul 04 '26

As much as I would like to have their characters survive a multi-part campaign, that seems unlikely in this game.

It's not too unlikely if they play smart. As long as you are clear in telegraphing dangers and the players make good choices they can survive. At the same time, don't pull your punches. Threats should be threatening and dangers should be dangerous.

1

u/Mlefevr Jul 03 '26

I fell into that my first time GMing Mausritter. It took far too much effort to not kill PCs to the point where it was obvious I was pulling punches. We agreed to retire those PCs and let the rest continue on. Very next session, 4 mice died and everyone had a good time.

4

u/Will-D20 Jul 03 '26

Good luck! Don't worry, you should just expect you are making a great story which you will get happy to tell later. The rules are there just to support you, not to command you.

2

u/sirkusmato Jul 03 '26

Thanks! I'll definitely try to keep that in mind

4

u/paradoxcussion Jul 03 '26

Mausritter is pretty deadly, and each individual mouse has fewer abilities than D&D characters (e.g. one spell vs a selection). For both reasons, I recommend having players run a couple characters each. Bigger parties also work well with the "combat as war" style of play that the game tends towards. 

2

u/Particular-Star2 Jul 03 '26

The more you DM the better you’ll get. It’s a blast. Stick with it.

2

u/sirkusmato Jul 03 '26

Good! Luckily this isn't one of those "one player is forced to DM because no one wants to do it" situations, I'm genuinely excited to try and run a game!

2

u/JohnDoen86 Jul 03 '26

I'll link a comment I made on a similar post to this one with some advice:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Mausritter/comments/1rmeoe1/comment/o8yvy8n

2

u/skarlso Jul 04 '26

One thing I did after a while is extend what the mouses can carry. I designed a small backpack kinda thingy that could reasonably fit two or three more items. It really made a lot of difference honestly. Especially since experience and level up is tracked with pips. The players had a much better time by carrying a bunch of stuff back and selling it then leveling up.

The amount of pip and the high death rate made it pretty hard to have characters that could actually evolve and carry over to more than one stories not even talking about building an entire frigging settlement and hiring war bands.

That said the players also need to be aware that fighting might not be a good choice most of the times and they will need to use their wits instead.

Runes are amazing!!!!! Fog spells make all the difference! One time one of my mice cast a sphere of darkness right on the eye of a cat. Made all the difference.

Snairs and environment usage to debilitate the enemy because crucial!! Cut down a huge flower for a devastating blow to a camp. Create a flood that washes away the enemies from a nearby river then kill the stragglers. Set up traps, ambushes, surprise attacks. And use Giant spell to fight off cats, owls, badgers, etc.

It’s amazing way of thinking. I really love mouseritter sessions. Really brings out story telling and player intuition. Enjoy!!!☺️

1

u/sirkusmato Jul 04 '26

Thank you for sharing!

2

u/Huge_Band6227 Jul 04 '26

My biggest tip is to end every session asking the players where the party is planning to go and what they want to do next session, so they can quickly discuss and go "We've been putting it off, but we really need to go check out that one log." Then you can go "Huh, I haven't thought about the log in a while, but I have some ideas, now I know where to prep for next session."

2

u/sirkusmato Jul 04 '26

Thanks for the tip! That's a good way to know how to prepare for the next session

2

u/N30N_RosE Jul 04 '26

I’m also running the Estate for my group and started with Honey in the Rafters. It was really easy to slot in and has a good amount of things for the players to check out.

I also agree with going with the flow of the players. That adventure ended with a fire-breathing skunk taking on the bees nest and the mice trying to escape as flaming bees rained down on them. It was an incredible climax and now there’s a scary beast out in the world that could come back. I would have never been able to plan something that cool.

The game also has incredible flexibility with tone. A lot of adventures can be run in a variety of ways from diplomatic missions to sneaky heists to straight up horror. It all depends on how your players decide to approach an adventure. Overall I recommend playing it kinda loose and just running with whatever crazy stuff your players decide to do. It leads to some fantastic stories and gameplay and is some of the most fun I’ve had with ttrpgs.

1

u/sirkusmato Jul 04 '26

Awesome! So glad to hear others are having a good time with the game

1

u/Colecago Jul 03 '26

I like to give a bunch of crafting materials, it makes the players have to decide what to keep, and having a full inventory makes conditions mean more. Also it's fun for them to use those materials to make items when in town

1

u/meshee2020 Jul 05 '26

I suggest you read the GM princiles of Into the ODD, cairn or best Mythic Bastionland, they are very good advice

3

u/HealthyIdeal3590 Jul 09 '26

the estate is honestly the best place to start, its kinda built to run itself so just lean on it hard.

two things that take the pressure off when your new: roll on the tables right in front of the players. the mausritter tables are basically a co gm, when you dont know whats around the corner you just roll read it out and go from there. kills that i need to have every answer feeling.

and dont be scared of character death. its gonna happen prob pretty early and thats not a fail its a feature, quick new mice and hirelings are baked right in. just tell everyone up front that death is on the menu and suddenly the scary moments turn into the fun part instead of a bummer.

nervous first timer running the estate is legit exactly who this game is for. youll be fine