So, I’ve purchased the Mouse Guard PDF, courtesy of a great sale at RPGnow.com, but I want to have physical pages to reference, as well. I’ll probably buy the physical book sometime in the future, but for now, it’s just digital, with printing out being my option. That being said, although I want to eventually print out all the pages, I print out of a limited University account, 250 pages a semester. Long story short, I have some pages stockpiled, but I can’t quite print out the full book.
Thus. I want to print out the book bit by bit, and wanted to know what pages people considered to be necessary to play and run the game. (It’s possible for me to run the game via my PDF, though). Looking at the character sheets, there’s a lot of VERY helpful information contained therein. Anything else that I might need for reference, assuming I’ve got the system down decently?
Honestly almost all the rules you need to play are on the character sheets and the conflict sheet. I rarely have to check the book for very much. Just read the book and get an understanding of the rules then you shouldn’t need it for anything other than creating characters. I don’t know any page numbers off hand that you may need, sample npcs are something that may be useful along with animal stats, but if your GMing this could be written down before hand. Maybe the rules on how to run conflicts, although I think for the better part this is found on the combat sheet. Information about the seasons is really only in the book, so you may need that.
As Rothwell states, the character sheets have 90% of the rules on them.
I always go through Its What We Fight For with the book at the beginning and end of each session. The later half in particular has the details for Reward Points and post game stuff. The language is very precise in this section so i like to have it on hand.
You’ll want at least a summary of the initial parts of The Mission (pages 55- 59). The next section of the mission you’ll want to reference during prep but wont necessarily need on hand. I also find the players turn pages useful for helping the players work out what they want to do during their turn.
Resolution is clearly an important chapter. It contains all the nuts and bolts. I’d want to have all of it on hand.
The next few chapters (The Seasons, The Territories, The Denizens of the Mouse Territories) are really important during character creation. You could do without if you create summaries of relevant sections during your prep time. However once you get used to how things run this will be very important for responding to the players actions.
Lastly you’ll want all of Abilities and Skills. This is the fine details of how the various stats and skills can be tested.
I make trait cards for the players consisting of the text for their specific traits so that they dont have to have anything else on hand.
That would be my suggestion. To reiterate, once you get into the swing of things your prep will be minimal and you’ll be driving play from the mission structure, characters actions, and flipping to the Seasons and territories sections regularly.
I have just been introduced to this rpg. I love the idea of it. However, the character sheet your speaking of will not print on my computer. I can download and print everything else, but the character sheet locks up my printer evedry time.
I always go through Its What We Fight For with the book at the beginning and end of each session. The later half in particular has the details for Reward Points and post game stuff. The language is very precise in this section so i like to have it on hand.
You’ll want at least a summary of the initial parts of The Mission (pages 55- 59). The next section of the mission you’ll want to reference during prep but wont necessarily need on hand. I also find the players turn pages useful for helping the players work out what they want to do during their turn.
Resolution is clearly an important chapter. It contains all the nuts and bolts. I’d want to have all of it on hand.
Okay, thanks! Good to know there’s these as “must-have-out” sections.
The next few chapters (The Seasons, The Territories, The Denizens of the Mouse Territories) are really important during character creation. You could do without if you create summaries of relevant sections during your prep time. However once you get used to how things run this will be very important for responding to the players actions.
Lastly you’ll want all of Abilities and Skills. This is the fine details of how the various stats and skills can be tested.
You figure I could make do by having these on my laptop, accessing via the PDF?
I make trait cards for the players consisting of the text for their specific traits so that they dont have to have anything else on hand.
Good idea.
That would be my suggestion. To reiterate, once you get into the swing of things your prep will be minimal and you’ll be driving play from the mission structure, characters actions, and flipping to the Seasons and territories sections regularly.
Nifty. That’s something I really like about it. It’s about flexibility, storytelling, and plenty of room for improv.
I use Denizens of the Territories and Abilities and Skills all the time when I’m running the game. Resolution is another chapter I turn to frequently, especially the sections on weapons for non-fighting conflicts and for the compromise guidelines.
The next few chapters (The Seasons, The Territories, The Denizens of the Mouse Territories) are really important during character creation.
I meant session planning, not character creation there. As you get more familiar with running the game, you’ll want this more and more during play itself. The suggestion that you can prepare a game in 20 minutes based on the 4 obstacles rules and running off the characters BIGs is totally true, but you will want to reference the book regularly (as Thor suggests)