First session, many questions

Hi all,
Could you help me out with these questions?

  1. Can a guardmouse’s parents feed and quarter the other members of the patrol? Does that count as aleviating the Hungry & Thirsty and Tired conditions?

  2. If you haggle for a better price in the Player’s Turn, will that cost 1 check for the Haggle test and then another check for the Resoursec test to actually buy the thing?

  3. Can you use a Trait to break a tie in the opponent’s favor in the Player’s Turn?

  4. After a test is failed, can the GM introduce a twist AND give conditions to the party?

(edit)
5. What is the reward for Embodiment?

Hi @SplendidBrush.

I can only answer some of these, as I’m away from my books, and Mouseguard is not my specialist subject!

  1. No, I don’t believe so. The Player’s Turn is for spending their “check”, not earning any.

  2. No. If a Test is failed, it is a Twist OR a Condition, not both. Either is punishing enough!

  3. The reward for Embodiment is a Persona point, and it is awarded to the person who roleplayed their character the best. At our table, Embodiment is awarded when we have seen a new facet of a character, and discovered something new about them.

We tend to ask “Do we know / understand the character better? Did they surprise us with their choices?”

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Any relationship of a single patrol member can provide for anyone they choose; I feel more often I had parents providing food/drink for the patrol, but lodging only for their own kid; mentors, friends, and enemies were less–providing only [mentor] a test or pass/fail of a skill, [friend/enemy] a meal, favor, or loan intended to leave the character owing them later in the future. Consider how you want the setting to feel for players. If the parents are of a wealthy status, do they share generously or hoard cautiously? If the mentor is a elderly codger with a meager stipend from Lockhaven (or less than that), can they afford to share much with the patrol? Or, if the mentor remains vibrant and vigorous, have they grown wealthy with their knowledge and experience? If friends are portrayed akin to lovers, would they deny anything? If enemies are simply rivals, could they have a soft spot of honor and regard that compels them to share willingly? A GM can set a tone for the setting with these interactions with relationships, so consider what you want to describe to players.

Generally, I have required one check for the Haggler test and one for the Resources test, but haggling is not exclusively about getting a price–sometimes it is about setting up a contract of mutual obligation. If it is about lowering the Ob for buying something, that’s bold to assume there are rigid price indexes! No, I kid. I know the factors for Resources give a clue about how to set a price in Ob format for things the characters might need to buy. This is another aspect of setting where a GM can illustrate what the world is like. Some settlements don’t tend to use currency, or share the currency of another settlement without argument; some places will accept service as payment for goods. So, generally, I’ve always had a Haggler test and an additional test to represent completion of the bargain, probably a Resources test, but maybe something else depending on the negotiations. So, that would require two checks in the player turn.

Traits are used as a detriment in the GM turn to gain checks for the player turn, so the rules-as-written intend for traits in the player turn to provide only a benefit while in the GM turn traits can serve as both benefits and detriments. Now, that’s not to say there are no opportunities, but I would stick to the rule-as-written. On the other hand, it might be an interesting subject of hacking a custom rule out of the tie-breaker opportunity, so perhaps making a rigidly enforced ruling that only in respect to breaking a tie, a trait can be used to gain the checks and lose the tied test to the opponent. The result is players have one gamble to pick up checks to handle whatever outcome arises from the test or other circumstances of the player turn.

Embodiment gains Persona.

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