Played the game the other day and had fun, but have a few questions.
During combat, a mouse had a versus test that came out even ((Attack vs. Defend (mouse defended)). Is the mouse allowed to break this tie, thus taking a -1 to his Disposition and earning some checks? Or may you only use the ‘break the tie’ option during tests outside of combat?
When working on a team during combat, how much discussion is allowed before choosing actions? The book says, “It’s traditional for the seniormost mouse on your team to choose your team’s actions and note them on his sheet.” Does that mean the seniormost mouse alone decides who does what? Or should team members offer up their ideas and strategies for the combat in order to help him with his decision?
To add to what stormsweeper said about your second question, when I played MG, we had the GM script first. When he was done, the players talked about their scripting and laid it out. If you do it that way, the GM can’t be influenced by the players talking things out, and the GM gives no indication of his scripting since he doesn’t have anyone to talk strategy with. It worked quite well for us.
As a GM I also like when my players never speak out the cards name loud but just show them to each other. That way I get some surprises too. It’s fun as a GM to not be the big story scripting god/godess but also have some surprises now and then (like in Conflicts or when players use their checks in surprising ways):
Hmmm… I think you may have misread me? You said “I also like,” but my point was that I didn’t like just showing cards and not being able to talk about it. No one at the table did, GM included. It stifles a big part of the social aspect of roleplaying games: player chatter.
Regarding what you said… You’re right, you get some surprises, but it’s very limiting for the players. If there are 3 of them, and 1 of you, my opinion is that the GM has to sacrifice a bit of pleasant surprise in favour of their ability to enjoy hashing their strategy out. From my experience (as a player), showing cards to the other players and shrugging/giving a questioning look isn’t a whole lot of fun. That’s why we, when we played MG, changed it to GM scripts and then the players are at full liberty to chat about how they want to play it out. Anyhoo… that’s just my advice. For us, it worked great. The GM actually really enjoyed it as well, because although he wasn’t surprised, he was smiling to himself as we set out our scripting. He then had the fun of seeing our surprise when each action was revealed.
That’s just me not being good enough at my second language. I didn’t mean ‘‘also’’ as in ‘‘like you’’ but as in ‘‘in addition to what’s already written above’’.
My player’s seem to like being a little secretive and surprising me as a GM and they’re only three so it’s not that much trouble not actually saying the card’s names and if they would need to they’re welcome to say them out loud. I have just told them that if it’s OK with them then I like the surprise moment.