As it seems, one of my players will miss tonight’s session of Call of Cthulhu so I jumped at the opportunity of running a Mouse Guard game and, hopefully, persuade my players to try a campaign. As the title says, I’m running Deliver the Mail for two players. I don’t know if this has come up before but let’s assume the following:
The players have a lot of Trait checks to use in the Players’ Turn.
They are persuaded by Martin to fetch the rocking chair NOW before they deliver the mail.
They spend a check to find the way to Walnutpeck and another to find the chair but they fail. The adventure suggests having them captured by weasels. Now, let’s assume they still have checks to spend.
So, does the players’ turn ends there and they loose the extra checks? Do they use the extra checks to flee from the weasels (seems a bit off since it was the GM who introduced the conflict)? I don’t know if this is a possible problem but here it is and I’d like to read about your points of view.
It’s an unlikely problem. But, the GM can present new obstacles to be overcome in the player’s turn through Twists (Page 74). They need to spend their checks if they want to do something about it.
As I understand it, by reading the book, is that either the GM ends the players’ turn and starts a new GM turn or just ends with a cliffhanger. That doesn’t answer my question. What if the players still have checks to spend? If the new GM turn begins, are the checks discarded?
Unless I’m misreading the scenario. After the conflict with Martin, if the players loose, are they allowed to spend checks on recovery BEFORE going to Walnut Peck? I seem to remember vaguely another thread where Luke (or someone else) saying that Martin wanted the mice to go IMMEDIATELY which implied that they could not spend checks on recovery and such.
After the conflict with Martin, have him say that he plans to leave for Walnutpeck first thing in the morning. If the players decide follow him, tell them that it will cost two checks to recover the rocking chair–one for the Pathfinder test and one for the Scout test. (You can say that the latter is “to find” the chair, and save the weasel presence as a twist for if they fail.) If they want to make recovery tests or initiate scenes with their other checks before they leave, that’s fine. This way, they should be out of checks in the event they are captured, and you can use that situation as the basis for the next GM’s Turn.
I believe the players turn does not end until all checks are spent, or the players decide to discard them. So if the players still have checks, the GM has to wait to end their turn.