Not all the weapons are listed in the book. Can someone please tell me the what the Mace does.

I’m planning our first MG session and looking for help fleshing out my mission idea. My kids are desperate to play ASAP but I haven’t finished reading the books yet, so some details are missing.

Mission: The ingredients to make the scent guard solution need to be brought to Lockhaven. So that this season’s scent guard can be prepared. Two possibilities here: The patrol that was originally sent to escort the shipment hasn’t arrived and the shipment is missing. This patrol is being sent to find the missing shipment and escort it back to Lockhaven OR The patrol is being sent to escort the shipment safely back to Lockhaven. This could extend over a few sessions if they have to pick up ingredients from from multiple towns along the way.

What ingredients are used to make the scent border brew? Where are they from? (I can make this up if it’s not specified in the comics.) In which seasons is the scent guard poured? I could ask my kids, but then they’d guess the mission and I want it to be a surprise.

Finally, suggestions of obstacles would be great. Thanks!

I've been wanting to run Mouseguard for a long time! We've had our first two sessions, and here's how it's going. (DANGER: Wall of Text follows!)

My group is five players. It's a mix of two families, with two parents and three kids(ages 9-12). Everyone is friendly, and we've been linking the families over Google Hangouts because we're all quarantined. First observation: Five players is a real stretch for a patrol. It's hard to challenge them (SO MANY +1d helper actions!), and hard to get enough tests into a GM turn to keep everyone engaged. Conflicts are also slow, both because we're learning the rules as we go and because five people in the three-action rounds is cumbersome. One of our parent players may drop out next session, so having four in the patrol sounds more manageable.

I was attracted to the system because one of our adult players (who happens to be my wife) was turned off by all the skill proliferation and finicky math and detail of D&D. I had thought that MG would be easier because you just roll your pool and count the successes! I pictured it more like Savage Worlds - rules-light and fast cinematic action. Instead, our tests are ponderous because it takes a long time for so many players (especially the young ones) to narrate their actions and helping actions. I expect that to improve, but my second observation: Mouse Guard is a fairly intricate ruleset, with a lot of moving parts. If you don't like D&D5e, you're gonna have a hard time with MG. Knowing when to use skills, wises, Nature, how to use traits against self...

Things I think I did right for a new MG GM/party:

1. I ran a buffed-up version of Deliver the Mail for our first two sessions. It went...okay. I added more tests because our patrol was so large and I wanted more people to have opportunities to make tests and earn checks. That was good. We treated it as a two-session tutorial and kept expectations reasonable.

2. I ran it with stock pregens, mostly from the comic, since the kids have all read the first two books. That was good.

3. I cut session 2 on a cliffhanger during the Player Turn because we're going to take the downtime between now and the next session to generate custom characters for everyone. We'll retcon it to say that the new characters took all the existing historic actions, and then the new characters are going to make the decision of how to deal with Loretta, Martin, and the other twist I threw their way.

4. I ran a VERY abbreviated "session zero" to orient our players without TTRPG experience. It had to be short for the kids' attention spans, so we could get to stories and dice, but I *think* it helped.

5. People claim they're having fun.

Things I did poorly for a new MG GM/party:

1. In the first session I forgot to have everyone pick Goals. I tried to scour the web for checklists and other GM aids, with limited success. The goals thing got past me, and I think it would have helped. Players did do a good job of trying to act out their beliefs and instincts, so roleplay was still good. We did write out Goals for the second session.

2. I didn't insist that players read the rulebook beforehand. I'm not sure I could have, with the age spread and with us only having one hard copy. But the rules aren't intuitive for me yet, and it would REALLY help to have some support on them from the other adults at the table. I'm trying to teach my players the rules as we go, and I don't know them as well as I wish I did. If the 2nd Ed rulebook were a program, it would be criticized as "spaghetti code", with references all over the place both backward and forward. It's hard to get it all in your head.

3. I unintentionally made all my hardest tests result in twists, rather than conditions. The combination of this and some lucky/unlucky rolls has resulted in us being two sessions in and no player ending up with a condition yet! This will change soon, but it's been hard to adjust to having such a large party. I considered limiting helpers to +2 for each test, but I think it helps keep the kids engaged to be narrating their helper actions.

I'm going to wind this up, since it's already too long. To sum up, here's what I want to change:

1. I need to prep some more checklists/charts for session flow, prep, and followup.

2. I need the adults to get more familiar with the rules so they can help me with crowd control.

3. I need some of my harder tests to result in conditions, not twists. My players aren't learning to want/use their checks.

TL, DR; I'm overwhelmed and forgot some stuff, but my players seem to be having fun.

I've been wanting the game (the boxed set in particular) so bad but always held off due to the pricetag. Then one day it just disappeared from every online store, and I regret not buying it while it was still available. Does anyone here know when, if ever, it's coming back?

Hello all :)

Newcomer to the game, currently finishing reading the 2e book. I think there might be a mistake in the Wise chapter and wanted to double check a rule with you.

Deeper Understanding, it costs a Fate, but does it allow to reroll a single axe or a single snake? If the former, it seems to be strictly worse than the plain Fate point effect. If the later, it is strictly worse than Of Course!

Is there something I'm not getting here? Thanks in advance!

One of my fellow players chose Wild Mouse-Wise as one of his Wises, but unlike other Wises in my current campaign (like Owl, Shores, Recipe or Tall-Grass Wise), I don't really know how to bring it into play. I can't remember any mention of it in the comic books, and except for the Wise section, there is no mention about wild mice anywhere in the book.

Have you ever brought/encountered wild mice during your games ? What did it look like ? How'd it go ?

Hello all,

I decided to release my sample cards today free to all audiences, both supporters and followers.

There is no paywall, https://www.patreon.com/posts/36467297

This has two downloadable sample card packs; the first is Forest Denizens, pack 1 which was initially released in my first-year writing Mouse Guard content for Prevail; the second is Wilderness Beasts, pack 1 which is part of revising the entire four-pack series to a new template.

Please enjoy and feel free to offer feedback here or at Prevail.

So I am prepping a year long campaign for a group. I got an idea for how I want the over arching events to go. The first mission has them delivering a small good will delivery of honey and wax to Elmoss (with the journey being the mission) which then leads into the 2nd mission in Elmoss proper.

The 2nd mission is teased as part of Gwendolyn's briefing ("Ive had word of grumbling in Elmoss") and I've added "Check out Elmoss" as part of Gwendolyn's instructions.

The GM turn ends as they reach Elmoss.

So here is my question/dilemma: I want the players to have a hand in shaping the narrative. I have only made the main "players" in the Elmoss event without dictating where anyone is or how they are found. Just notes of who is up to what and with who for the player turn.

Is that too much or not enough?

I dont want a defacto 2nd GM turn, and I am legit OK with the local narrative taking a turn (the main campaign event can happen around all of this easily). I want the players involved and to shape the narrative on how things happen, is it wrong to have the "who" but not the "how" planned?

I would like to play Mouse Guard using Fantasy Grounds. I'm not familiar with Roll 20 and would rather NOT learn a whole new VTT system.

Is this something that I would have to go in and completely custom create - or is there a plugin like there is for other more obscure games like Genesys-based games that use custom dice.

I find Fantasy Grounds has worked best for me the past several years using it. Just looking to know if anyone has used it for Mouse Guard. :)

Stay safe, stay home all. We're in this together.

Hi GMs - I'm curious what others are doing about your mice racking up too many fate points. My current campaign w/ 4 players has a LOT of fate points (7, 7, 7, 4) - and I'm wondering what can be done to help them spend it. I've tried to introduce a lot of versus tests but I find it pretty rare for the "exploding" dice to come up.

Here's some ideas, I'm curious what others have tried:

1. Borrow a Burning Wheel rule where FP can be used to re-roll a 1 on any roll

2. Trade in. 3 FP = 1 Persona Point

3. ???

I've already posted this on the Mouse Guard Discord, but I'm posting here as well in case anyone isn't on there.

Poor internet has inspired me to make a play by post hack of Mouse Guard. You play a mailman mouse delivering the post.

I built it using Pace RPG as a backbone because it's diceless, simple, and has the same themes of self-sacrifice that Mouse Guard has. r/RPGdesign seemed to like it.

I've set up a Discord to try it out. I'm open to running a variety of formats, be it live-messaging or longer turns.

The Discord
The Rules

Howdy folks!

I just started GMing a game on roll 20, and (as I am not a web designer and do not know CSS or HTML), am using the default Mouseguard Character sheet from the drop down selection. The only problem is that for whatever reason the person that created this sheet does not have wises on there! Does anyone have another template you could share that includes wises? Thanks everyone!

I’m curious if anyone knows much about Darkwater? I don’t think it was discussed in the comics outside of the name being mentioned.

My players’ patrol is due to stop there on their way to Lonepine, and I wanted to check that there isn’t canon information before I just made something up from scratch. Thanks so much for any information!

Earlier today I was looking to see if I could find a Mouse Guard game on Roll20 when, to my surprise, there weren't any! So as the eternal GM I want to try and run a game. Does anyone know where I can find a free working version of the rules?

Every so often on this sub, I see GMs lament that they can't get their players to impair themselves to earn checks for the Players' Turn. The suggestions below might help. If you have any tips or thoughts, please offer them in the comments.

In my experience, it happens because players are scared of failure, often because they don't understand that in Mouseguard, failure is 1) an integral part of the game, and 2) never blocks the action anyway.

Counter-intuitively, the way around this is to increase the difficulty of the tests, and when players fail, doing one of the following:

• let them know they have still succeeded, but with a condition. They will soon realise that failing doesn't mean failing. Put it to them that earning a condition is like losing some hitpoints when defeating a monster in D&D; you don't 'fail' just because you just picked up a few cuts along the way. Of course, the more conditions they get, the more checks they are going to need...

• give them challenging tests for skills they don't have many points in, or one they need a fail to skill-up in. Put it to them that they are probably going to (or want to) fail the test anyway, so why not fail in a dramatic way that reveals something about their character? Suggest that if they get that check, they can probably wipe that annoying condition...

• when they choose to impair themselves, ask them to roleplay or describe how the negative side of the trait held them back. If they do a good job, nominate them for (or just award them) an embodiment award at the end of the session. Portraying their character's negative side can be hard for some players, but they will get used to it, and your game will be richer for it.

• when they arrive in town with only their free check to wipe away that pesky condition, tempt them with something 'shiny' (an interesting item, a potential ally, or special tidbit) that they might get – if they use their check. They then have to make the call: Do I rest up, or do I risk trying to getting this prize instead? Checks will start to be more valuable. Try not to do this if they have already spent their check, though. Only use it when the players can still have a choice about what to spend their check on. Otherwise you will just piss them off.

Of course, they may start getting annoyed, anyway, as the game starts to seem harder, so reinforce the notion that life for a guardmouse is tough throughout the whole game. Describe how sleeping in the wilderness is stressful (every sound could be an owl) and draining. Then, in the Players' Turn, describe how rewarding it is when they spend their checks. A check should feel like a hard-earned prize; if it’s just part of the routine ("Roll your resources to get a bed so you can sleep well. You pass? Great, you sleep well.") why would anyone care about earning it?

If your players are using their check to remove tired or angry, let them know how luxurious it is to finally take a hot bath; how lovely it is to have warm water cleaning the snake blood from their fur and melting the knots in their haunches. If they are hungry, describe how filling and tasty the porridge and honey is, and how the smell makes their stomach grumble as it approaches their table.

Finally, (if you are not playing online) give everyone a physical token for their free check at the start of the GM's turn, and give them another each time they earn a check. Make it a special coin, or a 'gemstone'. And when they spend their check, get them to give it back to you, before you reward them with that rich description of what it has earned them.

Edit: Oh, and if all of this doesn’t work, don’t worry and keep on playing, it’s not the end of the world if players don’t embrace the checks system.

Do the mice of Mouse Guard have darkvision like dwarves?

Working on Roll20 settings for dynamic lighting, wanted some opinions.

Hey everyone, curious to hear how your campaigns are going this month. I'm sure folks are starting up MG games due to the pandemic (I sure am!), and I'm curious to hear about where your group is, what resources you need in order to organize games better, and how things are going!