Mouse War

So, reading through the book a couple of times I’m unclear how you would “attack” a creature ourside the normal allowed interactions. If there was an owl for example attacking a city how would the military or science groups capture or kill it?

If I remember correctly it would take 20 mice (at least) to interact with it in this way but do those mice add helping dice (I’d say no) and what ‘helps’ can you bring in to get the odds more in your favor (e.g. what multiple of mice would add helping dice? x20? If so, I can see the range of dice in the larger creatures being appropriately hefty). I know we are discussing a very difficult operation but what are the mechanics once you have your ‘force’ or ‘contraption’.

Additionally any help on the suggested Ob for the different ‘parts’ of the operation would be nice. Also, how do you calculate a final Disposition in the Conflict? Can Science help the Military (or Military help Science)?

Thanks ahead of time. :smiley:

What’s going on in your game?
What are you going to war with?
Who is leading the army?

I’ve got someone who want to have a character with Military who specifically said he’s like to see something leading up to a conflict of a large scale. While on a business trip I read through the book a couple of times and could not figure out how to adjucate something like that.

What are you going to war with?

No one yet. But see above, this is something one of my players would love to develop. It’s not like I have to do this its just mentioned in the book and the guy saw it and said “Cool, I’d like to see that happen.”

Who is leading the army?

A Guard Mouse PC if it happened with high Military and an interest in developing some Science skill (he mentioned making catapults for instance).

Cool.
Yeah, gather your mouse army (as mentioned on page 223) and use your War Conflict (page 112) and go to war with the animals (or mice or weasels). Military weapons (page 121-122) must be gathered or built before you go to battle.

-L

The key is to remember that, rules wise, a war is handled exactly like any other conflict. Gather “weapons”, determine which skills link to which actions and start scripting. Just remember your actions in a conflict are probably going to take place over a much longer time frame then a normal conflict.

Though thinking about it, you could play with time a bit. One Maneuver could be a season of moving troops around then an attack could be a one day battle. Or even an hour long quick strike against a weakly defended point.

–Victor

So, I’ve got a guy with Military at 5 and Mouse Nature at 4. If he wants he can pull up to 9 dice before helping dice, etc right? I’m assuming that the 20 mice to take on the owl is a minimum. I don’t have the book in front of me but if he had enough mice he’s be on a pretty good footing. Is there something I’m missing?

How much more mice would be needed to get helping dice? In a normal conflict it would just be another team. But in this sort of conflict, another 20? 10? It’d help to know a rule of thumb (e.g. 1/2 the needed mice for the conflict).

How do Wises figure in (I’m assuming as normal, given the write up and your replies). He’d like to use Science to help out but there are no FoRK right? So would he need something like Military Science Wise?

How would one figure out, as a rough rule, the difficulty of making military equip (weapons, etc) to effect a particular level of the food chain. If your fighting an Owl it would be easier to put together a net or spear chucker whereas with a bear you’d need…I don’t know what. A rock slide, poison, or something else.

Does the Military guy get to use Traits? Does anyone else if they are performing one of the actions in the Conflict?

I guess I just want to make sure I don’t make it too easy on them. I feel this should be next to impossible, especially at the upper limits but I do think that with a lot of planning it’s possible.

He’d have to spend a persona point to tap his Nature to get 9 dice and it’d be against his Nature.

What’s up with the helping dice? Swords don’t give helping dice to their wielders. Soldiers don’t help generals. They are the means to his ends.

Wises obey the I Am Wise rules on page 92. There are no FoRKs in this game.

Page 232, Winging It, instructs you to use the skill factors and obstacles as guidelines for making up stuff beyond the scope of the book.

A War conflict does not supersede the basic trait rules described on page 257. War conflicts use the same rules as all other conflicts. If there are mice on your team, then they must take actions. Hopefully, they’ll have the appropriate skill or be willing to risk their Nature.