Question about Chase Conflict

Mouse Guard Lockhaven
1

I am new to BW, and just reading the Mouse Guard book for the first time. So far it sounds very neat and I am rather excited about trying out the narrative mechanics of this game.

I was reading through the Conflict section and it says that Nature is the base for a Chase. Directly below it says “Mice may only use Nature as a base for disposition if the conflict is appropriate to their Nature”. Does this mean that Mice may not use their Nature (they have base of 0 and are therefore at serious disadvantage) if they want to chase after something since I can’t think of a case where they would be the pursuer in given the four aspects of the Mouse nature?

Or is that rule only referring to the other two conflict types where both Health and Nature are options?

Thanks

2

Mice may only use Nature for Chases involving hiding, escaping or climbing.

-L

3

So how do you determine the disposition for guardmice chasing after something? Only use Scout successes? I’d hope not since that would give a criminal mouse (escaping) a 4 or 5 automatic success edge running away from… another mouse. Or would it be Health in that case?

4

This seems like a genuine piece of errata that I had an answer for once. Anyone remember what I said last time? Because that’s the answer.

5

I’ll presume you are just choosing to say “You only roll Scout” in an evasive way.

  • Barring spending persona to tap nature on the actual actions or extreme dice luck, can you (or anybody) suggest any good means for a mouse to make up the pursuit deficit?

  • Hmm… Is it possible to tap nature for extra dice on the rolled component of disposition (i.e. spend persona and add nature dice to scout for the chase)?

6

I’d rather say Luke sees this as an oversight he thinks has come up before.

7

Yeah, I’m serious. This has come up before, but I’m too jetlagged to find the answer. Help!

8

Luke’s jet lag is so enormous that he has affected at least me, too. Can’t find it, either.

9

I looked through numerous old posts by Luke last night and the closest I found was this thread that just says you are taxed if you fail a non-nature appropriate roll for actions (like Defend during a Fight conflict). Unfortunatly that wouldn’t be applicable here since base disposition is a non-test (but its what inspired my question about tapping nature for the test part of disposition)…

10

If you tap nature for the test part, it’s a succes if you roll any successes, and a fail if you roll none, for purposes of tap-tax. It doesn’t mark a test on nature anyway.

Same for substituting nature for a skill in setting disposition.

As for the Scout Roll for the chase; use nature as a base OR use Health as a base…

11

Thanks so much for the replies. I did find the “acting against your nature” section so for the test skill, and that certainly makes sense if you don’t have the Scout skill. The suggestion to use Health as an option in instead of Nature seems reasonable if it is deemed to be balanced.

I did a search before asking so while there might be an answer already posted, it would be a facepalm on my part. It just seemed odd as I was reading it. Something like the example of the criminal escaping was what came to mind. It is a steep disadvantage for Mouse vs. Mouse situations. Almost Final Fantasy like. Aside from that it would seem reasonable as Mice would not normally have cause to chase after creatures of another species.

I’ll keep an eye out to see if anyone does find the previous instance of this Q/A, or Luke recovers from Jetlag.

Thanks so much.