How I Garb My Tenderpaws

[Rainspirit]

@MG_Fellow

So I know it says that in the recruitment section it says that tenderpaws don’t have cloaks, but the two tenderpaw pictures have cloaks. Are those just cloaks that are there while their tenderpaws? If they don’t have cloaks then do they have anything else to identify them as members of the Guard?

@luke

I think you’re the first person to comment on this. You should get a prize or something.

They have cloaks because I messed up when I gave David the art direction.

@MG_Fellow

Thanks : P
But do they have anything else that identifies them as members of the guard?

First off, thank you Luke for being honest with that little detail about the art. Things make sense now!

Because I was unsure about tenderpaws and cloaks, I got an idea from seeing Sloan’s somewhat drab cloak in her picture…

At the “tenderpaw ceremony” that I made in the first session for a PC, I added in the detail that tenderpaws DO receive cloaks at the beginning of their year with the Guard. However, the cloaks are undyed, with a boring cotton-grey color to show that they are unproven and not yet “full” members of the Guard. Assuming the undyed cloak survives the year of wear and tear that Guard service entails, the tenderpaw’s mentor takes the cloak and decides what color it should be dyed, to reflect the 'paw’s induction into official service.

Now that I know the mystery of the “cloaked” tenderpaws in the rulebook I may scuttle that detail if I ever get a new group. But what do you guys think? Good idea, neat, lame?

[Aramis]

I made similar, but rather than gray, just unbleached. And when you become a full Guard Member, you get a new one, not just having the old one died. One had a green and sky herringbone weave cloak…

[Rainspirit]

That’s maybe a better idea, to hand in a new cloak. I’ll try that. Do you let the PC mentors decide the cloak color of the tenderpaws?

[Aramis]

Haven’t had that happen, yet.

[The_Erudite]

@Aramis

I made similar, but rather than gray, just unbleached. And when you become a full Guard Member, you get a new one, not just having the old one died. One had a green and sky herringbone weave cloak…

Fancy! Makes me nostalgic for Dogs in the Vineyard. It wasn’t woven by the character’s close family, was it?

[Aramis]

@The_Erudite

Fancy! Makes me nostalgic for Dogs in the Vineyard. It wasn’t woven by the character’s close family, was it?

No. His mentor’s family.

[Yagathai (Mike V.)]

@Aramis

I made similar, but rather than gray, just unbleached. And when you become a full Guard Member, you get a new one, not just having the old one died. One had a green and sky herringbone weave cloak…

Wait, so in your game you give Tenderpaws cloaks?

[Aramis]

@Yagathai

Wait, so in your game you give Tenderpaws cloaks?

just a plain, unbleached one, for practical weather wear. No clasp, just a tied-closed.

Fundamentally, a cloak is just a blanket tied or pinned over the shoulders.

[Yagathai (Mike V.)]

Huh, wow. OK. I guess I’m just a little surprised because it says pretty clearly in a couple of places in the rules that Tenderpaws don’t get cloaks. I never thought you the type to kitbash the game like that.

This whole time I thought you were running Mouse Guard, when this whole time you’ve been running “Aramis’s Game which borrows large chunks of Mouse Guard”.

[Aramis]

@Yagathai

Huh, wow. OK. I guess I’m just a little surprised because it says pretty clearly in a couple of places in the rules that Tenderpaws don’t get cloaks. I never thought you the type to kitbash the game like that.

This whole time I thought you were running Mouse Guard, when this whole time you’ve been running “Aramis’s Game which borrows large chunks of Mouse Guard”.

The art included shows otherwise; given the art was by DP, I went with the art over the written references. Actually, I missed the references, and the idea of being out camping sans-blanket… but remember, if you have a blanket, you have a cloak.

[DavetheLost]

The grain merchant in the opening frames of issue 1 is clearly wearing a cloak. Robin the Tenderpaw is also illustrated as wearing a cloak. The mouse in the “Healer” common trademouse illustration also wears a cloak. It is not too much of a stretch for me to imagine that there are both civilian cloaks, which are common place garments, and the Cloaks of the Mouse Gaurd which are special garments.

It’s that or we lynch Luke and David for being inconsistant. }

[Yagathai (Mike V.)]

In what RPG has art ever been considered rules-canon?

[DavetheLost]

@Yagathai

In what RPG has art ever been considered rules-canon?

“Canon refers to the story as it happened in the comics.” from the Mouse Gaurd RPG rule book.

I would say that in MG art is definitely rules canon. This is after all the “Mouse Guard” RPG, not the “pseudo-medieval anthropomorphized mice” RPG.

The rules do state that newly generated Tenderpaws characters do not start with a cloak, but not that they may not wear them.

You do not wanty to get into a game of RPG history trivia there are many obscure RPGs with odd rules out there.

[Githe]

Wearing a cloak is quite different from recieving your cloak, as a guardsmouse. That cloak, and that color, will represent your mouse till he or she retires. The pawns used by militarists are colored to match these cloaks. It’s like a knight’s coat of arms. For some mice it’s simply a died sheet of woven fabrick, but for some like Gwendolyn, Delvin, Annika and Cerise there are details and ornaments that distinguish them. Delvin’s cloak, for example, is a swatch of white fur.