Die-Bump-Ups

Mouse Guard Hacks and Expansions
1

This came up as I was reading the Poison/Drugs thread.

The RAW version for wises in Mouse Guard (and I’m guessing it applies to FoRK in BurningX) is that you only get to have +1D irregardless of how many related wises or FoRKs. So, for example, if I’m trying to recover from some sort of condition, and I have all of Healer, Survivalist, and Herb-wise, then I’d pick one (probably Healer if it is highest) and only get +1D as a bonus FoRK (even if I roleplayed both Survivalist and Herb-wise).

I can understand this, since it essentially puts a cap at the number of dice being rolled.

But it got me thinking: what if I was playing the Mouse Guard equivalent of Dr. House? What if I had a ton of other wises or related knowledge? There should be some extra benefit to the character who happens to have Healer, Survivalist, Herb-wise, Mouse Anatomy-wise, Infectious Disease-wise, and Nutrition-wise.

So here’s the proposal: the first wise grants you the +1D “FoRK” bonus; for every two additional wises that are related, you get a “die bump up.”

Taking the two cases.

  1. Character with Healer 5, Survivalist 3, and Herbwise 2. Roll Healer +1D = 6 dice.

  2. Character with Healer 5, Survivalist 3, Herbwise 2, Mouse Anatomy-wise 2, Infectious Disease-wise 2, Nutrition-wise 2. Roll Healer +1D = 6 dice. Plus 2 “die bump ups”

What do the die bump ups do?

Well, after rolling the dice, each bump-up you spend lets you increase the value of one die. (Any bump-up you don’t spend does not get saved for a later roll – so spend it or lose it.)

So, lets say we roll 6 dice and get: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. With 2 bump-ups, you would increase the “3” to a “4”, and the “5” to a “6” … which gives you 4 successes instead of 3, and if you spend fate, add 2 dice instead of 1.

Does this sound promising? Or will there be more whine and cheese?

2

Well, according to the FAQ BE allows one wise and one non-wise, and standard BW lets you pile in as many skills as you can justify. As to your proposal, its interesting, but statisticly might provide the same impact of just giving an extra die for every two applicable skills (and still preserve the possibility the application of the add on skill would be of no use, where upping dice would guarantee successes). Another possibility would be to have added skills boost the quality of success when its already successful with the main roll (the way some of the tools and weapons do).

As far as Dr. House the Mouse goes, the way a typical episode is structured you could justifyably say he is using just one skill at a time and never benefiting from his broad range of skills, considering how many mistakes are made trying to guess the illness. His GM just has a fixation for using “That treatment seems to work for a few hours, but suddenly the patient goes into seizure/starts bleeding profusely/becomes blind” as a Compliciation, requiring a new skill to be used for the basis of diagnosis/treatment each time.

p.s. My wife and I love that show. :slight_smile:

3

Seems too complicated. I have thought about a pyramid +1D for first wise, +2D for 3 wises, +3D for 6 wises, etc.

Or visually like this

1 = +1D

1
2 = +2D

1
2
3 = +3D

Still too complicated for me…but I agree some kind of benefit for your goofy brilliant guy would be cool.

4

Don’t forget the role of helping dice, conflict weapons, and most importantly Traits when making skill tests. A character like House, Mouse Doctor isn’t defined only by his high skills.

5

Since when does Mouse Guard allow FoRKs? In your example, the only choice you have to get +1D from is Herb-wise, not Healer or Survivalist. You can’t use non-Wise skills to get you +1D to skill rolls, and they aren’t called FoRKs (that’s a B* term). The rule’s called “I am Wise” for a reason. :stuck_out_tongue:

As far as your new rule idea, I find it interesting, if a little fiddly.

-B