I just got the free comic book, the prologue that explains the three black axes. I fell in love with everything! Lore, art style and characters. And a few of my friends did as well. So we decided to play the RPG, however we don’t have any game masters that have played the game (and i haven’t stopped looking). Only one in our group has any rpg experience, and he hasn’t replied to me yet if he would be willing to learn the new game by himself.
So the question to ask is, what do? Can anyone give me a TL;DR or outline of turns and basic rpg tips, rules and other things.
Oh! Before I forget, for those who’ve read the actual comics/graphic novels, which is the chronological first issue? or what do you recommend me to get first?
(if anyone would be willing to do a online session to teach me, I’d be down for it.)
Welcome to Mouse Guard! Have you read through the opening section of the book that describes play? The game is laid out pretty well and reading it should give you a good grounding.
For normal games you would create characters, get a mission from Gwendolyn, create goals for each character based on the mission. Then start play with the GM calling for a roll to overcome an obstacle, resulting in success, Twists or Conditions. Continue play until the GM calls the end of their turn and hands things over for the Player turn.
For your first game, I suggest keeping things simple by grabbing one of the sample missions and pregenerated characters from the book. Also, on this forum you can read through a bunch of after play reports for examples of play. I’ll go ahead and pimp one of mine. We’re always here for any questions.
The best approach for your group would be to take one of the book’s sample missions and sample patrols and play for a couple to a few sessions. This has the advantage of getting you all playing right away (playing being the best part of the experience), but also creating a situation where you all should be comfortable exploring how the game works, because you haven’t front-loaded expectations with a lot of preparation.
If you want to get a sense of how a session goes, a few years ago I wrote up my planning and play for one instance of a campaign I ran. You can find it here: [MG] Planning and Play: Summer 1153. Good luck, please let us know if you have any specific questions, and be sure to report back and let us know how it went.
I just want to echo similar thoughts. Read through the text, but don’t overwork yourself trying to model the game in your head–try to get to the table with your play group as soon as possible. Keep the rules ready as reference material; there is really so much good stuff by keeping a watchful eye in the rules text.
I’ve got a number of custom missions; none are written quite using the same pattern. I chose one of my favorites as an example, Grasslake Flu. Even looking a second time I realize things I want to rewrite for better clarity (but when have I got that kind of time?)
If you use google docs, I’d be willing to let you read one of the sessions I run as a Play-by-Shared-Doc to see how that goes. However, I can understand those are fairly lengthy and don’t always have perfect guidance of how the rules are behaving. I tend to go back later and remove rules and rulings to leave just the story behind.
oh, I by far enjoy most of all the Legends of the Guard books; there are two. But, I read Fall 1152, Winter 1152, then found Black Axe to read. But, I bought Legends of the Guard. Maybe that says something.
If you want to do a bit of online gaming over G+ hangouts or play-by-shared-doc, I’d be willing to run a few teaching sessions. I haven’t played at a table session for about two years, so I’m a little slow on improv.
Chronologically, Fall 1152 and Winter 1152 are the main meat of the story. Legends of the Guard branches out of that, and is an anthology of Mouse Guard stories. Legend of the Black Axe is best read after Winter 1152, because the framing narration for the book takes place in Spring 1153 and thus builds on a plot development from Winter 1152.
The cards for the RPG game are really helpful in that they break actions down without having to look at the conflict table. Very helpful. I printed off some and laminated them (they came out beautifully!) but you could probably use them for reference too.
I will offer the counterpoint that I had a lot of trouble wrapping my brain around Mouse Guard (and still do!). I ran a session with it and it went well but I’m looking to hone my skill a bit more and will have the advantage of running another few games (assuming the group enjoys it!). I made a 3 page Ref screen that I would be happy to share with you but it may be incomprehensible to anyone but me. Be happy to send it to you. Good luck! It’s a cool game and probably the version of Burning Wheel that is most accessible for me.
Thank you all for the replies! I have begun reading the rulebook, so far i kinda sorta have a grasp of it. But I will most undoubtly ask around when the need arises.
I feel like half the fun would be making the characters, the missions I will probably use the samples or ones made in this forum for now. Thanks for the suggestions though.
Hello! I will read your thing when I have more time, right now I will finish reading the rulebook and some guides on the net.
I do use Google Docs. I’d still be interested in reading, just so I know what to come up and how the game works if I ever GM this game. PM me please. Or I shall PM you.
I thought the Legends of the Guard would be a nice starting off point. And I’d love to hit you up on a short teaching session if you’re willing. I’m certain I can scrounge up one or two more people to play with me
Ah! So Fall 1152 and Winter 1152 are going to be my first two books. Honestly, I was lost because I thought the 1152 referenced the number of comics there are in that category, not the year. (Doh!) So I was confused on the chronological order of the series since I failed to find a issue 1 anywhere. Thanks for this clarrification. I will definetely place an order on my nearest comic store.
Finally I do have some questions about the game so far, and I’d love to have someone explain it to me. - How does Conflict resolution work? I mean can someone give me a play-by-play example of one unfolding. The idea of individual checks, I understood(I think. Actually, I wouldn’t mind it if someone could post about the entire thing as for a new RPG player, I feel as if this is the major obstacle in the game that prevents me from completely understanding.) but the group ones completely throw me off balance. - It seems to me you can make a character that has 6’s across the board with all the skills/abilities, as I have yet to find a restriction to this. Is there a restriction? - The box set comes with a GM card, something that has all the important rules and stats for the games at a glance IIRC. Does this exist in PDF version? And would you kindly direct me to it? - Is there any update on a reprinting on either the hard-copy book or the box set? I was crushed when I learned it was out of print, especially since both the hardcover and the box set look awesome.
A full conflict (rather than just a Test) involves two or more teams. Each team declares a conflict goal and rolls for its disposition. Then, teams script their next three actions in secret. The actions are revealed simultaneously and results determined through dice rolls and the way actions interact. Once a team is reduced to zero disposition, they lose the conflict but may be entitled to a compromise from the winning team depending upon how much disposition loss the winners incurred.
There’s actually a good example of a conflict between Lieam and a snake spread throughout the chapter on conflicts in the book.
- It seems to me you can make a character that has 6’s across the board with all the skills/abilities, as I have yet to find a restriction to this. Is there a restriction?
You can’t. The way characters are created will yield mice with a mix of skills at various levels.
Maybe I’ll open a different thread, but this thread might be served by avoiding a full write-up of a conflict.
- It seems to me you can make a character that has 6’s across the board with all the skills/abilities, as I have yet to find a restriction to this. Is there a restriction?
as mentioned by noclue, you can’t make a character with exclusively high ranks. Every choice in character creation introduces sacrifices–even if the player doesn’t see it as a sacrifice. You can certainly have a Guard member who emphasized certain skills to such a refined expertise that they have few skills, but are masters of those limited gifts. You can spread the skills thin to have a well-rounded group without much experience in any one talent. But in both of those cases, you have to make decisions about how to come away from the Recruitment.
In addition, Nature, Circles, and Resources can be mechanized into a perfect set of answers which lead to exclusively high ratings. There is a slight bit less sacrifice; however, Nature whether high or low has some meaning to the behaviors of a mouse–even when the player doesn’t see it as an impact.
- The box set comes with a GM card, something that has all the important rules and stats for the games at a glance IIRC. Does this exist in PDF version? And would you kindly direct me to it?
I can’t say anything about the print copies, but a .pdf can be found for purchase at Drive-thru RPG (or something like that). I’m certain you could find the accurate link from another thread.