Planning One Shot - Looking for Feedback

Mouse Guard Missions
1

I’m putting together my first mission for a one-shot session. It’s still a little rough around the edges and was looking for some feedback. My plan is to reverse engineer the BIGs for this one, creating the mission first and the basing the BIGs on what would fit into it. I have a few ideas, but could use more.

(It may look familiar since I’m cribbing from Deliver the Mail and Danger on the Scent Border.)

The Mission
Spring has just arrived and Gwendolyn tasks the party with delivering the mail to Gilpledge.

Along with the rest of the mail is one special letter from her that needs to be delivered by the guard personally. One of the older guardsmice became ill over the winter, and he requested the presence of his estranged brother before he passes. The party must ensure he get this message with utmost haste.

GM Turn
Obstacle One
There was recently an early spring rain, and another may be close behind. The party needs to find it’s way through the muddy wilderness.

Pathfinder Test
Twist on failure - the rain comes. They can build a shelter (Survivalist) or tough it out (Health)

Obstacle Two
The party finds a merchant unsuccessfully trying to pull his cart out of the mud. He tells the party that he and his two partners were on Appleloft when they were attacked in the rain by Weasels. His two partners were kidnapped and taken away, while he hid in a nearby abandoned hole. He plans on making his way on his own, and asks the party to escort him. The way is said to be frequented by bandits and he could use the protection.

The hole isn’t abandoned, though, and as the party is talking the snake that lives there returns.

Conflict vs Snake

Player Turn
Here is where I’m trying to build conflict in the party. One of the mice will have a Belief along the lines of “mission comes first” while another will have something like “our first duty is to protect mice from the wild.” The other two will be a little ambiguous so that the players can sort out how their mice react. My goal here is to make it impossible for the players to accomplish everything.

There are three major options I see for the players (I expect discussion will cost the party a check too, as they get into a Argument Conflict):

Deliver the message (1 check)
From where they are, they can make it easily to Gilpledge. Once they deliver the mail, it will take a Circles test to find the recipient of their message.

Escort the Merchant (2 checks)
The merchant is insistent about leaving as soon as he can (he refuses to be sidetracked to Gilpledge). He is willing to wait for the party to rescue his partners, but otherwise is leaving. Helping him is a Pathfinder check and Scout check (to avoid being ambushed by bandits). Failure will twist into a Conflict with bandits (fight, argument, or chase) I’m also thinking of making the bandit leader a PCs enemy.

Rescue the merchant’s partners (2+ checks)
The weasels attacked last night, so they can’t be far. It will take a Scout check to track them and another (Nature or Conflict most likely) to rescue them from the weasels. I’m thinking one of them could be one character’s Friend to spice things up. Once rescued, the two mice are too hurt to travel, and require a Healer test (a check each or one big one for both). Without success means one of them doesn’t make it and is killed by his injuries.

How does this look so far?

2

Anyone?

3

You are planning to write BIGs for pre-gens. Have I understood that correctly?

The Mission
Spring has just arrived and Gwendolyn tasks the party with delivering the mail to Gilpledge.

Along with the rest of the mail is one special letter from her that needs to be delivered by the guard personally. One of the older guardsmice became ill over the winter, and he requested the presence of his estranged brother before he passes. The party must ensure he get this message with utmost haste.

GM Turn
Obstacle One
There was recently an early spring rain, and another may be close behind. The party needs to find it’s way through the muddy wilderness.

Pathfinder Test
Twist on failure - the rain comes. They can build a shelter (Survivalist) or tough it out (Health)

you can spice up the first obstacle by considering a complex obstacle; however, it might work better as a complex twist. So, the opening obstacle is a Pathfinder–success leads the patrol onward to the next obstacle. Failure indicates the patrol finds a part of the trail in need of attention (Carpenter, Stonemason, or Laborer may be needed and the travel is delayed), the patrol is sidetracked and must use an alternate route (Pathfinder, Survivalist, or Cartographer might be needed and the travel is lengthened), or the patrol has lost track of food and water (Harvester, Nature-forage, or carried foodstuffs may be needed and they tough it out with Health).

Turning that to a complex twist places more pressure on the patrol when they meet the next obstacle. In fact, their delay may have been the reason they could not protect the merchant mice during the night.

Obstacle Two
The party finds a merchant unsuccessfully trying to pull his cart out of the mud. He tells the party that he and his two partners were on Appleloft when they were attacked in the rain by Weasels. His two partners were kidnapped and taken away, while he hid in a nearby abandoned hole. He plans on making his way on his own, and asks the party to escort him. The way is said to be frequented by bandits and he could use the protection.

The hole isn’t abandoned, though, and as the party is talking the snake that lives there returns.

Conflict vs Snake

I’m not sure that the snake is quite so organic. It seems to just crop up without foreshadowing or connection. Perhaps an interesting alternate could be that the merchant hid in the hole of a still hibernating badger; then, he warns the sleeping beast is still inside. This arranges some foreshadowing.

But, maybe take it a step farther by forcing the patrol to stand still as the merchant pleads for them to help in searching for his companions. Make them argue it out in front of the badger lair. I’m not suggesting a conflict, but be open-minded if it seems the patrol is willing to refuse to the extent of a conflict. Plan for a Persuader or Haggler vs Will (he’ll try to talk them into the search and rescue, then might try to negotiate their service). The swap from versus to conflict can be hard to feel out; as the GM, you’ll know better if it feels right for the session.

Player Turn
Here is where I’m trying to build conflict in the party. One of the mice will have a Belief along the lines of “mission comes first” while another will have something like “our first duty is to protect mice from the wild.” The other two will be a little ambiguous so that the players can sort out how their mice react. My goal here is to make it impossible for the players to accomplish everything.

There are three major options I see for the players (I expect discussion will cost the party a check too, as they get into a Argument Conflict):

Deliver the message (1 check)
From where they are, they can make it easily to Gilpledge. Once they deliver the mail, it will take a Circles test to find the recipient of their message.

Escort the Merchant (2 checks)
The merchant is insistent about leaving as soon as he can (he refuses to be sidetracked to Gilpledge). He is willing to wait for the party to rescue his partners, but otherwise is leaving. Helping him is a Pathfinder check and Scout check (to avoid being ambushed by bandits). Failure will twist into a Conflict with bandits (fight, argument, or chase) I’m also thinking of making the bandit leader a PCs enemy.

Rescue the merchant’s partners (2+ checks)
The weasels attacked last night, so they can’t be far. It will take a Scout check to track them and another (Nature or Conflict most likely) to rescue them from the weasels. I’m thinking one of them could be one character’s Friend to spice things up. Once rescued, the two mice are too hurt to travel, and require a Healer test (a check each or one big one for both). Without success means one of them doesn’t make it and is killed by his injuries.

How does this look so far?
Hopefully, the group will also surprise you with other ideas for the Player Turn. If the merchant directly asks them to search for the missing mice, and uses a test to convince them, I’m sure that will feel more important; there is a good chance you can get a patrol mate to promise about it.

If it really is a one-shot, I’d suggest downplaying the need for recovery. Consider offering recovery without costing checks, since it is an essential rule to learn. Just be sure to explain that normally it costs a check to recover. By offering that freely, the patrol can afford to use their checks on other tasks.

Also, if you’d like to pressure the patrol in a way that might prevent the mission from being accomplished, you might see the patrol mates fighting over BIGs during the GM Turn. It can be more fun to let them argue together through a versus or conflict in order to really determine whose plan is carried out.

My last comment: since the message is for an estranged brother to travel to Lockhaven to visit a sick Guard member, having that brother ready to force an arguement to convince him of returning might be a great way to employ a check. This could depend on how many checks remain among the patrol. As a one-shot, falling short a check or two from getting things done might skew the impression of the game.

Certainly, over a more lengthy adventure with experienced players, they should be accustomed to earning enough checks to do what they want or feeling the pinch when they haven’t enough checks to accomplish all they imagine.

4

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I am creating pre-generating characters, BIGs and all.

I get what you are saying about the snake coming out of nowhere. I’m thinking that I may start the story with Gwendolyn warning that this time of year sees a lot of animals waking from hibernation looking for food, and is especially dangerous. Then I will offer a choice in the first Obstacle: The direct route, which is faster but risks attack by animals, or the longer, safer way. That will give them something to worry over up front, and foreshadow both the attack on the merchant, as well as the need to escort him.

I love your idea of having to convince the brother to go. I think I may change the mission to objective to actually escort him to Lockhaven. He wants to stay and deal with issues at home and doesn’t have time to go. This give me compromise options if it comes to a Conflict (players stay to deal with problems while he travels alone)opens up another mission if I have time to run a second (either escorting him to Lockhaven, or dealing with his local problems).

5

I think this mission is shaping up to be an excellent one. I really like your designing the pre-gen BIGS to stimulate the conflict and tension within the group that really makes MG shine. Please post back and let me know how it goes!