Mouse Guard Rpg 2nd Edition Pdf
Edelmar Easley
The Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game created by Luke Crane based on the Mouse Guard comics and his own Burning Wheel system. Boom! Studios' imprint Archaia Entertainment released a second edition of the game on 3 November 2015.[1]
Mouse Guard is a pseudo-medieval setting about an order of anthropomorphic mouse rangers. The setting itself was written by David Petersen in a series of Eisner award winning comics. Many details of the setting such as "How does a mouse become a member of the Mouse Guard" were fleshed out specifically for the RPG.[3]
The game system is a simplified version of the Burning Wheel system, using standard six-sided dice, with each result of a 4-6 being a success. Each character has an overriding belief, an immediate goal, and an instinct that guides them, all with mechanical weight.
Critical reception was strong, with the Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game winning numerous industry awards. It won the 2008 Origins Award for best roleplaying game[4] and numerous Indie RPG awards,[5][6][7] as well as being silver winner for three ENnies[8] and shortlisted for the 2009 Diana Jones Award.[9]
(This review is for the first edition of the game. There is currently a second edition which makes some minor updates to a few rules, but the main thrust of the game remains the same, so many aspects of this review still apply.)
The political tensions in the territories and the rich possibilities of the recent war with the weasels are also great story fodder. Nearly any way you cut across them can produce interesting stories. The tensions between political unity and independence and freedom and tyranny have several good hooks in the complicated relationship between Lockhaven and the outlying towns. The looming weasel threat provides great opportunities to explore the dangers of excessive militarism and the dangers of insufficient vigilance. The prospect of weasel spying provides opportunities to explore issues of trust and loyalty. Even the weasels themselves provide interesting story fodder, since they have an element of both the monstrous and the civilized: demonizing them or ignoring their nature can both be fraught paths.
There are several elements in the Mouse Guard skill system that make it feel like it operates against a solid foundation rather than an elastic envelope around the players. This is good for the game design and also reinforces the thematic core of the game in which the mice are struggling to survive in a world that is, at best, indifferent to them.
Note: As I said at the beginning, this review is of the first edition of the game. There's currently a second edition, which I haven't read or played myself. As I understand things, it makes several minor mechanical changes such as to the way traits and wises work. However, I have heard reports that there are some unfortunate editing errors (especially related to the examples, which apparently weren't all updated to track the new mechanics) which serve as a minor impediment.
this is really cool I play mouse guard 2e with my friends once a week, We're mouseguard veteran by now. Now we're trying our luck with MG father, Burning Wheel, with good results. Visit my profile, I'm posting lots of maps, @derekvonzarovich I write all the stuff at Elven Tower.
To start off, imagine what it is like to be a mouse in the first place they are small, weak, and fearful. Mice are prey animals in nature. Their entire lives are spent in fear of the unknown next predator around the bend. Almost every creature in the forest could be a predator to them. In response, you build your home in the most protected and sheltered spot you can find and hope for the best. Now imagine you are a guard mouse. You are weak and small by nature. However, you have learned to be strong because you have to be. You must be brave because the smaller you are, the more bravery means and there are mice to protect. Thus flows the story of mice who are bravely sent out into the forest to protect the weaker.
Stylistically, the panels are superbly drawn. The illustrations look as if they glow from within like light shining through the trees in autumn. Wind could rush through my room as a read this and I would not be more convinced that it was fall. The illustrator completely nailed what fall is supposed to feel like.
I would recommend this to anyone over the age of ten. I think if a child tried to read this before that age, much of the subtleties would be lost on them. But, I would especially recommend this to any comic book/graphic enthusiasts out there. This is a graphic novel that graphic novel lovers love.
So what are the rules, layout, organisational and narrative differences between the four versions? Do both box sets come with the cards? Is it worth buying the second edition, even as a PDF, if I have the original? Are there any additional materials available that are only compatible with one edition or the other?
Both editions' boxed sets include a softcover version of the rulebook, a map, dice, a GM screen, character sheets, GM scratchwork sheets, reference cards for weapons and statuses, action cards for scripting combat, and an extra book with some extra rules. This extra book, "New Rules, New Missions", is purchasable as a standalone PDF and has not changed between editions; the softcover rulebook is the same as a standalone hardcover one.
The second edition boxed set includes an extra set of dice; the first edition set includes some giant mouse-headed colored pawns instead, which are nice if you want to play Gwendolyn on the included map, but can't really help with many game functions.
The reference cards in the second edition have less text on them and more fun graphic design, if that's your bag. If you only have a PDF of the first edition and you're looking for a boxed set, get the second edition one if you can.
Wises changed greatly between first and second edition. Instead of being skills in their own right, now they're just something you have or you don't, and they're not rolled directly to do anything.
Wises can assist in skill checks as normal; in addition, when a Wise is applicable and you're the active player, you can spend a Fate point to reroll a single failure or a Persona point to reroll all failures. When you have assisted on a success and a failure and spent both a Fate and Persona point on a Wise, you get a small boost; you can swap to a new Wise, or get a free check on a Beginner's Luck or skill related to the Wise.
Conflicts no longer split up the Guard between multiple allied teams. There's only two sides, one of which is usually the GM, though Players' Turn conflicts might only involve players. Some guardsmice can hop to the GM side if the conflict's more argument-styled and the Guard can play both sides of it, but much of the time they'll all be on one team. The rules do suggest that if circumstances arise where, for example, the patrol needs to both put out a fire and drive off the weasel arsonists, you can split the patrol and run two conflicts in parallel.
As a corollary, any guardsmouse can only receive two helping dice during a conflict, even if you're running a patrol of five where everyone could pitch in. (That's helping dice from relevant skills, not the bonus from wises or from other tools or supplies.)
Recruitment has also changed a bit. Guardsmice begin recruitment with a fairly wide base of skills rather than being blank slates. However, all guardsmice make about the same number of choices during recruitment, instead of patrol leaders having huge amounts of checks to distribute. As a result, created characters aren't focused in a handful of skills but have a wide selection, able to perform well in a wide variety of conflicts.
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers that fight off intruders, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden village to another. The Guard patrol borders, find safeways and paths through dangerous territories and treacherous terrain, watch weather patterns, and keep the Mouse Territories free of predatory infestation. They do so with fearless dedication so that they might not just exist, but truly live.
Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam, three such Guardmice, are dispatched to find a missing merchant mouse that never arrived at his destination. Their search for the missing mouse reveals much more than they expect, as they stumble across a traitor in the Guard's own ranks.
A mouse peddling grain took the path from Rootwallow to Barkstone alone, but never arrived at his destination. Mouse Guard members Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam are dispatched by Gwendolyn, head of the Mouse Guard to find him. It is quickly uncovered that the missing merchant mouse was devoured by a snake, which the three Guard members dispatch, but the plot thickens as the merchant is revealed as a traitor; carrying a detailed map of Lockhaven, home of the Mouse Guard.
While Guard members Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam were tracking the path of the grain merchant, Gwendolyn has sent word to another of the Guard, Sadie. Sadie, who once watched the shoreline region of the Mouse Territories, is to make contact with another missing mouse, Guard member Conrad, as there have been no outgoing communications from his northern shoreline dwelling Calogero.
Sadie arrives at Calogero to find it abandoned, or so it appears. She is quickly met by the peg-legged Conrad, who relates that the grain merchant is a traitor who would meet his mysterious master, who always remained in the shadows at Calogero. The duo plan to leave for Lockhaven at first light to warn them, but are surrounded the following morning by crabs. Conrad sacrifices himself to the crabs so that Sadie may have a chance to escape and warn the Mouse Guard of the traitor.
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