My friend found it hard to believe that someone would betray the guard (he hadn’t read the comics), based on the impression that the mice were in so much danger already. It seemed suicide to destroy it. He was also stuck on motivation: why? Gold? Is there? Does that matter? Power? Prestige? Aren’t mice under constant threat? Shouldn’t they pull together?
Reading the NPCs in the back, I noticed templates for Bandit and was like, “Huh! Never would have thought about it!” based on the idea that again, mice would be really hard-pressed to live away from the towns.
I noticed there was another thread on how G. is kinda darker than most people think.
I’ve only read the first hardcover comic, so I noticed there was a lot more than Good Mice versus Bad Weather/Animals.
But I’m starting to think MG is a lot darker than I thought…
So put this in Missions 'cause I’m trying to think about some issues that I wouldn’t have thought about before occuring / involving missions:
What do they do when someone murders another mouse? Is there a jail? What’s the whole law/order issue?
When communities are in desperate straights, they act to preserve themselves. They think of themselves first, their immediate needs. Long term goals and sharing with neighbors are very low on the priority list. In fact, they can be counter to current needs.
Why share now when we have so little? Who’s to say sharing with you will benefit anything in the future? You could be killed, or betray me or just live off of my charity. Better for me to keep what’s mine. In fact, better for me to defend what’s mine and prevent anyone from taking any of it.
And this is exactly what the Guard represents: working against the selfish tendencies that will eventually doom not only the territories but the species–or at least, a species with meaningful culture.
This line of thought is what makes (IMO) the Nature stat so compelling and tone-appropriate.