I recently picked up the Mouse Guard RPG Box, read the rule book and am excited to play. I’ve never played a Burning Wheel game and think I’ll have to give the rule book another read.
When going through the missions, it mentions doing an Ob 4 Nature test for the mice to discover the map of Lockhaven in the back of the peddler’s cart. Why Nature? It doesn’t seem there is any other skill or ability that applies but why does Nature apply?
so, just as Luke said, the Scout skill is needed to search for hidden things. I have two possible conspiracy theories about why the sample mission outlines Ob 4 Nature test. Here:
The text is a slight error in which an editor didn’t catch and correct the Nature to Scout
Due to the map being an unknown, the player cannot say, “I’m searching for the map that this mouse has of Lockhaven which shows details of the citadel defenses and entrances.” In such a case, the player can only really say, “I’m searching the cart for any evidence whether this mouse is a traitor or not just as G suggested.” With that being the case, perhaps an editor thought, ‘not knowing something is there to be found means Nature is the right choice.’
I’d go with conspiracy theory 1, and correct as GM by calling for Ob 4 Scout test.
The Ob 4 is due to being a stroke of luck, just as the text states.