Great mouse. I think the skill choices are fine if you are okay with them.
This looks good. Yes, his mentor will now be Isaac. Based on the concept, Leader trait and Instinct, he’s a bit of a “backseat driver” right? This could lead to some good conflict between tenderpaw and mentor. I like it. Because of his instinct, I’m assuming that he likes to give orders, but not necessarily be the one others turn to for orders.
My belief is about the things that are important to him.
In a perfect world he would live his life with his values and be a Guardmouse and everything would be peachy. But sometimes you have to do things that aren’t the thing a Hero or a Knight in the Legend would do. You will sneak into a prison and will free a convicted criminal so that he can help you do X. You will work together with Bandits, you have to cheat and lie.
Luwik doesn’t want to do that but he wants to be a hero and a Guardmouse and that is even more important to him. He will not put his values over his duty even so he wants to.
He will grundginly go on and do it. He probarly will suggest another method but if the patrol leader says that is what is done than he will do it.
(at least later he will do that, maybe he has to learn the hard way first.)
He will put his noble natures over and easy life but his duty comes first.
That is the kind of challenge i want with this character. To make him go do stuff he doesn’t agree with. In the beginning this will be really hard for him.
So this is how you would threaten this Belief. Force him to make grey/shady stuff make him be Han Solo and not Obi Wan. Robin Hood and not King Arthur
So what will be the party dynamic? Ex-Tenderpaw and his mentor, Luwik as a new member of the patrol and ?
Okay, Victor will be mentored by Isaac. Since Isaac has Pathfinder and Weather Watcher as the highest stats, it makes sense for those to be the emphasized teachings.
Victor’s leader trait comes from his innate quality; he is simply a born leader. He has charisma, but not many contacts. Once he becomes a small fish in a big pond, that trait might seem superficial. Yet, among his age group in Grasslake, he stands out as a leader–especially at such a young age.
His instinct is about friendship and his opinion about good leadership. He would rather learn by helping, help by doing, and lead by helping rather than give orders for others. Also, he doesn’t feel that he is an example that everyone must look to except in the example of the Guard Oath. He doesn’t think he must be better than others at something to lead them; lead by helping is his style. That is what his lead from the side means to him.
Can I make sure we are on the same page about the timeline?
The Weasel War was in winter 1149. If he joined during that war, his rank moved super fast from that time to 1153 (when many campaigns begin; GM might be considering a change to that timeline).
Don’t forget two years apprenticed in Lockhaven, one (maybe two) year as Tenderpaw, then 8-12 years Guardmouse and several years Patrol Guard.
So, maybe we need to get the GM to give us a timeline to use as a reference point.
It looks to me that the submissions have been:
Luwik, Guardmouse from Lockhaven by Praion
Engelbert, Guardmouse from Barkstone by zzzman74
Isaac, Patrol Leader from Ivydale by MGZebo
Victor, Tenderpaw from Grasslake by kendesign
Ahh, I knew someone would come and correct me eventually! As I’ve said I don’t have that knowledge, but luckily any war or conflict in the past will work. Also having Isaac join the guard before the war isn’t a killer or anything. Thanks for pointing it out though, I’m really wanting to read the comics, just haven’t had the time recently.
personally, I think it could be really neat if we use the 1108 map and run a campaign far earlier than the canon from the comics. It could be really neat. nearly all the settlements are the same, but the change of the era by 50 years might be really neat to try out.
I think that would only work if you go in deep in Mouse vs. Weasels. That is like the only thing we now that happened during that time.
You said it yourself “The settlements are basicaly the same” and everything else yeah we don’t know anything else that really changed.
So if there is nothing different than there is no reason to change. Change would only work if we go into the weasel conflict. Exploring the Darkheather and fighter tha weazelz.
Having a now empty Darkheater to explore and having a few Weasel spys and loners that cause trouble seems more interesting and subtle to me.
I’m not seeing the conflict between a noble life and life in the guard. The Guard’s Oath is about honor, loyalty, service, a higher sense of morality to help out fellow mice above all else. In other words, to Serve the Greater Good.
When I think of conflict, I think of having to make a compromise with a corrupted governor in order to help the townsmice, or having to sacrifice personal gain to assist mice in danger, or working with criminal mice to get the information needed to rescue a captured guardmouse or something. Breaking out a convict, lying and cheating, etc. doesn’t square up with the idea of a guardmouse to me. That is in direct conflict with the Guard’s Oath, unless somehow it Serves the Greater Good. So maybe a belief like:
“Sometimes a guardmouse must compromise their personal beliefs to serve the greater good.”
I don’t like using the word Belief in a Belief, it seems like cheating 
Ok, I think we have two choices:
a) Pre-weasel war. A game involving discovering, exploring and possibly mapping the Darkheather. Will involve plenty of weasels, but not only weasels.
b) Post-weasel war. Could involve anything, but probably relatively less weasels than option a.
Either way, we use the regular map and don’t need to change anything. The weasel war has either happened or it hasn’t. Likewise, Midnight’s Rebellion has either happened (option b) or not (option a).
Let’s take a vote. Give a 1 sentence reasoning for you choice. In the case of a tie I’ll use that information to make a final decision.
my vote: I would prefer a pre-weasel-war era using the older map in which we can use weasels as a core antagonist with frequent interaction (not always violence and warfare either) wherein we exist as contemporaries to the Black Axe and its legend as well as a set-up generation for Midnight’s Rebellion and the Weasel War.
my reason: I would like this as a chance to imagine the Territories prior to Gwendolyn’s appointment as Matriarch wherein we can join the legends that influenced the Mouse Guard as we see it in the comics.
regardless: I think that the overall concept of Victor fits either era well and would be happy to play him in either era.
I like how Bert’s interaction with bees has generated a whole knew curiosity about animals. Go with him as is and you can use Beginner’s Luck for Loremouse.
I’ll be sure to wiki this setting info…since I don’t know almost half it. That having been said: I find myself unable to make a suggestion as to the era of play, due to my ignorance.
No worries.
I’d like to be in the current era and meet up with some of the characters from the Comic. Having the opportunity to rival with Lieam for the Blackaxe seems interesting.
For my belief what about :
“I will be a patrol guard in the next spring”
The complication in this would be to please both Gwendolyn and Isaac who could have different views of a good Guardmouse (Needs of the many vs. needs of the few/weak)
That’s less of a belief and more of a Long-Term Goal, isn’t it?
I agree with MGzebo on this one. For a goal you can do something like, “I will prove to my patrol on this mission that I am worthy of becoming a guardmouse” suggesting that you will go above and beyond the call of duty. If you want to differentiate yourself from Isaac, you can have a belief like “The needs of the many are always more important than the needs of the individual.”
i’m still not sure, i thought you cna have goals as beliefs but that is more a BW or BE thing where you can do this.
What about
“I will let no shame come on the Guard from my actions or the actions of my patrol” or something like that
“I will offer all that i am to protect the sanctity of our species, the freedom of our kin, and the honor of our ancestors.”
(taken from the Guard’s Oath)
man, i wouldn’t have thought that writing the belief for Luwik would be so hard
Edit : Rules question, why am i the only one with only 2 and not 3 traits
Regarding the traits, Tenderpaws and Patrol Leaders start with 3. zzzMan74 needs to remove 1 trait from Bert.
As for the belief, I like the first one, “Neither my actions nor those of my patrol will bring shame to the Guard”.
Yeah, in MG you have a distinct Belief and Goal. In BW goals are covered in your beliefs, since there is no separate “Goal” category. Therefore, a Belief in MG should be just that. Save goals for the mission.