Has anyone thought of how to put together a ‘Burning THACO’-like Mouse Guard Hack? I think most of it could be cribbed from the Realm Guard work but I think something to get party cohesion rocking combined with definitive roles (e.g. fighter, thief, wizard…elf, dwarf, etc?) is needed. Nature again is the hardest thing to put my head around (and of course if not done right will sink it)… Any thoughts?
I have seen with mine own eyes some extensive notes on the subject.
Well, spill! Who do we need to be talking to (if they’re not yours).
Apparently, it’s being kept a secret. You’ll just have to be patient.
Ooooh… that doth sound intriguing… Looking forward to seeing what comes of that.
I’m not real good at patient but this sounds worth the wait 
Thanks for giving us the hope that something is out there.
Oh, yes. MG THAC0 would rock.
Dungeoneers and Dragonslayers is it? C’mon spill already… 
Well, I’m working on a hack to drop Forgotten Realms into the Mouse Guard system (for introducing some RP-heavy friends of mine to the BW/MG system), but if this is approaching public knowledge soon, I might just hold off.
Any estimate on time to launch, or should I charge ahead on my own hack?
For the record, my thought is Nature (Adventurer): the seven deadly sins. Pride in your ability forces you apart from your people (because D&D is all about a motley crew of miscreants). Greed leads you towards the loot. Sloth is deeper; while there’s the in-joke (can we sleep now? I need to heal up!), there’s also the “desire to retire.”
This makes it work with the Nature 0/7 hard limits, too. At Nature 0, you can’t adventure with normal adventurers anymore, you’re too much of a saint. At Nature 7, nobody wants to adventure with you anymore.
That was my original thought, anyway. I figure I’d have players choose three of the seven (to narrow down the scope), and go for it.
My problem with the system is the Tenderpaw/Guard Captain rank choice; I thought at first they could be classes in the classic D&D style (high will, low health? wizard! Tenderpaw -> fighter!), but I’m not sure if that’ll work, now. The problem is that you end up with strange age and skill requirements, and I’m not sure if changing those will screw up the system or not. It seems like it’s not “balanced” by default, and that’s a major part of D&D (though I understand it’s not a big deal to BW players, and I don’t think the RP guys I game with would care anyway).
Sure, someone might want to play a Tenderpaw for the RP value, and a bit more health, perhaps, but would they want to play a Fighter vs. a Wizard if the former only really had more health going for him? I suppose it’s a big deal in a combat-heavy campaign, but I’m just not sure.
I like BW/MG for the entire “meta-gaming makes it better” incentive setup. I’m trying to find a way to make it work with the D&D retheming, but I’m not seeing it. Perhaps I’m missing something obvious.
Hmmm, I really like the idea of associating adventurers with a sin (not what you neccessarily intended, I don’t think). But I like the idea that you have to make that your nature and act accordingingly. I really like the “best intentions” angle to that too, the Paladin with Pride and the Wizard with Greed or the Fighter with Sloth.
Are you keeping the skills as is? Why do you need the rank?
Hmmmm, wheels turning,
- Don
I know! It’s Nature as “negative” call-on trait, in a way.
No, there’d be changes in skills, but the number of points is still different. I’m leaning now towards Tenderpaw -> Recruit, etc., and just re-theming the names. That’s the thing; the ranks and ages feed directly into the Will / Health numbers, and while glass-eye wizards and tank-like fighters are practically D&D canon, where do the rogues, bards, and paladins go in the ranking system?
I don’t want to add new ranks (as it’s tuned so well already), so I’m trying to find a way to shim D&D into MG, and not the other way around.
I’ll start a new thread with the general idea, I’ve got a few others to go with it.
Hmm very cool. Yeah I like it as “how long have you been adventuring/age.” Maybe Hero, Party Leader, Vanguard, Adventurer, Mouse (as a cologuialism for new). I like the idea of young sorcerers compared to grizzled man-at-arms, etc.
What skills were you going to use?
Did you change the game structure much?
Alright, further discussion on the 7 deadly mice continues: Nature (Adventurer), and general D&D hackery.
Any news about “Dungeon Guard”?