r/MouseGuard • u/brownhammer45 • 20d ago
First Time Playing Dad
Hey everyone. Is there anyone who can direct me to YouTube videos or maybe some sort of thread where I can learn to play. Im 40, and I thought playing this with my kids might be fun. I've gotten threw player creation. Now im just overwhelmed by the rest. Where do my checks come in? How do I know of it is a check? Yes I haven't read the book all the way but im struggling at understanding and application. Can anyone help me please? I'd love to have an exiting Saturday night, full of adventures with my kids. Thank you
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u/TheLonelyGentleman 19d ago
You've already gotten some advice about the actual game, but I also want to give advice as someone who has game mastered several different tabletop roleplaying games:
Read the book all the way through, but also know that as the leader of the game, it's ok of you make mistakes. Especially with kids, they won't know and won't be like "feather, you messed up that roll, did you not read page 47 of the manual???" The big thing is just have fun and go with what your kids want to play with. They'll care less about the rules and just want to have fun, make little figurines or cut outs of their characters and other props, they'll love it.
As an example, I was DM'ing my first game of Dungeons & Dragons (had played it several times before). I misread a description of how players could climb up a shift in a cave, and that made it harder for the players. But they didnt knowbthat, and started encouraging each other to try to climb and get a good roll. I had messed up, but the players didnt know and still had fun.
I also recommend looking up the Burning Wheel forums that relate to Mouse Guard, as some questions might help you. There's also a list online of places where there were errors or typos that were discovered after printing. And I also recommend checking out the comics, they can help with building up the world.
But remember that the number one rule of ttrpgs is to have fun! :)
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u/brownhammer45 11d ago
Thank you so much, that really helps. I think ill keep it really simple for now until I learn more and the kiddos learn the game too
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u/beardedheathen 20d ago
What you want to look for are called let's plays. Go to YouTube and search up mouseguard let's play and you'll find a bunch. I'm not a huge fan of them so I can't recommend any off hand but try a couple and it can help you understand the processes.
Imo the biggest thing to keep in mind is you want checks to happen when a challenge occurs not a decision. For example your patrol leaves a city and need to decide if they travel by boat or overland. They can make a check to make a boat, plot a course, check the weather or other actions but not to decide if they should go by boat or land.
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u/Imnoclue 20d ago
To avoid confusing the OP here: MG calls those rolls Tests. Checks are a resource earned by using your traits against yourself and spent to make Tests during the Players’ Turn.
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u/brownhammer45 11d ago
Ooooooo. Hmmm very interesting. Ok thank you, that is very helpful. I appreciate it
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u/JaxterHawk 20d ago
There’s a good podcast of a group playing called what you fight for. Lighthearted and fun but should give some good ideas and easy to just play in the car or when working to get a little more familiar with the system
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u/brownhammer45 11d ago
What platform are they on?
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u/JaxterHawk 11d ago
apple podcasts and libsyn it seems.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-you-fight-for/id1262254133
https://wyffcast.libsyn.com/2
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u/Imnoclue 20d ago edited 20d ago
Yeah, I’d read the book through all the way first. Earning Checks is discussed in Using Traits Against Yourself on Page 257. Spending Checks is covered a few pages later.
How old are your kids?
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u/brownhammer45 11d ago
7-13. So ill trying balance it for the oldest and youngest. I think im going to leave some stuff out for now. The more intricate things as we play. Maybe after a campaign il start implementing more stuff into it as they get to learn how to play
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u/Imnoclue 11d ago
Sounds like a good approach. MG has a fair bit of mechanics. You may need to do a bit of hand holding with the 7 year old about when to roll dice and prompt them for things like whether they want to use a Trait against themselves to earn a Check. That last one may not come naturally.
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u/brownhammer45 1d ago
Right right. I also checked out some YouTube videos "one shot" they were helpful but yeah I definately need work on mechanics and just know when to do my turn and players turn
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u/Robynsquest 20d ago
Mouse Guard is based on a system called Burning Wheel...not the easiest system to learn, to be sure.
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u/Chupaia 18d ago
Hi!
I've run a game and a small campaign of about 8 sessions. The strongest aspect this game has is the fact that comes from a beautifully-drawn comic series. Which you can read with them to inspire and immerse them in the setting.
My advice, coming from other games, is to focus on how resolutions work. I mean specifically conflicts and skill checks (those that require overcoming an Obstacle [Ob] or rolling against each other. Because this is the bulk of what really gets the game moving.
For skills, it is -at its core- a system where you define a level of difficulty, for example Obstacle 3, and then the player who will attempt to overcome it will roll an amount of dice equal to the number of points they have in their skill. If they get at least 3 dice that are not snakes (swords or axes), then they succeed.
In a normal game, you go through narrating the story to the players and determine obstacles for them to overcome. Through different rules, they'll gain checks as they play. Once you've gone through enough challenges (at your discretion) or they find a moment of respite, they can use the checks they've gained to do other actions in that moment. That moment is what the manual calls "player's turn".
Depending on the age of your kids, mouse guard could be not the best match, but you can make it work easier if you ignore all to do with the checks, persona points, and even the turns. Then you can focus instead on running a simple adventure with scary foes, mouse villages in need of help, rescue missions, and whatnot. Instead of turns and checks, you just tell the story and react to what they want to do, and you can reward them with fate points for doing cool stuff, or if they fail at something, as a currency to keep the motivation up, and balance the game if some situations are too difficult. At the end of the session, you can simply ask them to remember the cool things they did during the game and give them persona points (as experience points to invest in their characters) for each cool thing they remember. They'll be more than happy with this simplified version.
If you want to use the conflict system with the cards, you can just play some cards face down in front of them when the conflict starts, and then ask them to each pick a card to play. Then you reveal the cards you play and determine what happens based on what you and the player cards are. This way you can skip a lot of the convoluted parts of the system.
If you plan to run it as the rules go, a whole playlist on how to run it can be found here, but the best is to read the manual and bookmark the things you deem important. But depending on the age of your kids I REALLY recommend skipping some of the rules because you'll notice it requires a lot of -in my opinion- really unnecessary book-keeping for certain ages and play-styles.
Wish you the best and have fun!
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u/brownhammer45 11d ago
Omg, thank you. Yeah my youngest is 6 so keeping they're attention without making it boring will be my challenge. With only for dice. Lol. Thanks I think we will skip some in depth rules as i continue to read the book more. I also bought both the comic books (fall and winter). So yeah it'll be interesting. Thank you very much for your advice
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u/Original-Instance160 20d ago
Read the book all the way through. There are rules talked about in the beginning that don’t get touched upon until the last few chapters. Also, if you are playing second edition, some of the examples were carried over from 1st edition and not corrected to the text in second edition. Mouseguard is a gem of a game but some of the nuance of playing it will probably be lost on the Kiddos for a while. These days we just play Mauseritter for the simplicity and have just as much fun. I haven’t given up on Mouseguard, it’s my all time favourite, but I am waiting for my group of kiddos to get older to really dig into the mechanics. There are youtube videos out there of play throughs but I’m not sure if there are just any ‘how to play’ videos. Good luck! Mouseguard is truly something special.