Having learned that the Mouse Territories are based on Michigan fauna, I have to ask: where are the bobcats and lynx? There should be no more frightening foe to the mice of the Mouse Guard than a cat that has crossed the Scent Border. I was surprised to see wolf stats but no cats.
No cats, no rats.
Any reason?
I think the main reason is to separate the world of Mouse Guard from our own. It is not Earth without humans. It’s the world of Mouse Guard and the Territories. Cats would make readers and players associate the game too closely with our own world, and I think David Petersen’s aim was to have it be its own self-contained fantastical realm.
With cats and rats, it would feel like mice trying to survive in our world, instead of mice surviving against their own natural world.
Just my opinion. I can’t base that on anything Mr. Petersen has said.
I understand about the rats; that’s been done, and treads on slippery-slopes with mouse/rat comparisons and contrasts; not fun or entertaining.
And I agree that ‘regular’ domestic cats have no place in the Mouse Territories; they exist only because of humans, and without us, no ‘cats’.
But bobcats and lynx are as natural in that locale as wolves and wolverines. And while I would never want to see any form of cat in a stereotypical role, I do think one would easily make the mouse-equivalent of the critter from Alien.
I may not be remembering right and I don’t have the book with me, but I thought there were stats in the book for a lynx.
and
and finally
I’m sensing a story here. Petersen won’t like it, but I think I can take him.
p.
I WILL ban you.
That’s it, I’m writing a Mouse Guard: Patrolling The Backyard hack. Think of it as Mouse Guard meets Stuart Little meets The Borrowers (the books, not the movie).
–Victor