Dungeon World Hack of Mouse Guard: Violating Intellectual Property?

Hello All,

I’m not sure if this question is in exactly the right place, but I wasn’t sure where to turn for guidance on this issue.

I fell hard for Mouse Guard as soon as I saw it. I was an avid reader of Redwall growing up, and the Mouse Guard setting strikes just the right balance of childlike enthusiasm, tiny heroism, and gritty realism for me. I read every new issue of Mouse Guard that comes out, and own as many books as I can get my hands on. I love the Mouse Guard RPG and hope to one day play it with an enthusiastic group.

Unfortunately, today is not that day. I have a gaming group that isn’t interested in learning a new system, and I don’t have the time to search far and wide for new players. Instead, I’ve created a Mouse Guard hack using the Powered by the Apocalypse system seen in Dungeon World.

I’m very interested in testing this hack out, and refining it into its best possible form. I am hesitant to distribute it though, because I don’t want to violate the intellectual property of David Petersen or Luke Crane. My goal is not to compete with Mouse Guard RPG or profit in any way from this venture. I would distribute it to interested players and GMs in order to test it and allow them to experience the Mouse Guard setting in a different kind of RPG, but without any intention of ever selling or mass-producing it. Would this be allowed, or should I leave this cat in the bag?

I am torn between a desire to share my work with others who might be able to really enjoy it, and respecting the rights of the original content creators.

Your opinions, thoughts, and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Do you need to call it Mouse Guard? There are other games and settings with mice, like the Mouse & Mystic boardgame. You could distribute your rules without a specific setting, call it Mouse World and stop worrying.

Just my 2 cent.

You can’t use Mouse Guard IP without permission, of course. But you could play mouse knights of the Round Table with Dungeon World without issue.

“Rat Patrol”