Second Fruits: Actual Play

Mouse Guard Missions
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I didn’t get a chance to finish the AP for the first MG game I ran at the last Endgame Minicon. It’s not fully fleshed out, but if anyone wants to read the incomplete draft, feel free. I didn’t get back to finish it before it was so distant in memory that recollection faded and melded in with the other three sessions of 2nd Fruits that I’ve run since. Nonetheless, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Oh well, here goes:

On 28 March Endgame’s miniature convention in Oakland, I ran the MG adventure I wrote up, Second Fruits. I really enjoy the Minicon format, as it allows me to run small adventures and try stuff out. At the January Minicon, I ran the Deliver the Mail adventure pretty much straight out of the book, when I was first figuring out how to run the game, dealing with conflicts, et al. Deliver the Mail was an excellent adventure for introducing MG both to players, and to me, as GM.

This time I decided that I wanted to do something more independent, hence Second Fruits. I arranged to run two sessions of this mission at the current Minicon, and an additional iteration of this adventure at KublaCon, one of the Bay Area’s regional game conventions (I’ll be running on Sunday afternoon, 23MAY.). Anyway, I wrote it up, did a playtest with my fianceé & a friend, and then ran it Saturday morning at the con.

Here’s the point where I start talking about the adventure proper, so if you’re interested in playing this with me, you would be best served by not reading further.

I used the four characters from Deliver the Mail, Dain, Quentin, Baron & Robin. I had four players, K1, K2, K3, and R. K1 played Quentin, K2 took Robin, K3 grabbed Baron, and R took Dain. Most of the players had at least some familiarity with BW, but none had played MG. R had run one session of MG, but hadn’t played yet, and expressed that he wanted to see what someone else does with the game. Only two of the players were familiar (even a little) with the comic, so while we waited for everyone to arrive and set up, I let them peruse my copies of Fall 1152. When we started, I started by talking about Belief, Goal, Instinct, encouraging each player to describe in turn their Beliefs and Instincts. I explicitly set aside Goals discussion for later. Then I reviewed the CS with all the players, going over Skills, Wises, Traits and whatnot, while also describing tests and successes. Before I described Helping Dice, I talked about the significance of Cloak Color, and handed each player 6 dice of his character’s color, telling about how the cloak represents the character, and the dice represent the cloak. There was some short discussion about the status of Tuk the Bandit (as he’s Dain’s Enemy, and also Baron’s Friend), before we got to playing proper.

I introduced the players to Gwendolyn by opening the scene with Dain’s patrol entering the Map Room, and seeing both the big map on the Wall, and the Table Map with various colored mouse figures strewn across. Gwendolyn ordered them to Wolfepointe to relieve Kenzie’s patrol, which had been guarding a foraging expedition (Here, I noted the purple die on the Map at Wolfepointe, suggesting that in place of the map, there was a purple mouse figurine). Then I moved the white die I had left near Lockhaven on the map over to Wolfepointe. Then, I asked if there were any questions? Dain piped up, asking if there was any mail, so I gave them two letters to deliver to Darkwater on the way. Dain and the patrol went to Darkwater, encountering a heavy thunderstorm along the way (failed a Weather Watcher check, and got a Twist). Late that evening, they dragged themselves into Darkwater Tired and Hungry.

After sleeping over at Darkwater, the patrol delivered their letters. One of the letters was for a mouse named Feagin, who upon receiving it and opening it, blamed the Guard for endangering his Dry Goods business. He claimed the letter was sent from Lonepine (a half-day from Darkwater toward Wolfepointe), and that while it should have taken only a day for the letter to arrive, it took over a week (since it somehow went all the way to Lockhaven before . He the guardmice that his business in Lonepine is in trouble and insists that they escort him there. Since was on the way, they saw no harm in it, and then he sprung the trap. There was a caravan coming from Mapleharbor that should arrive in the next day or so, and could they just wait one day (or maybe two) , and then they could go with the caravan? Dain reluctantly agrees, after consulting with the Patrol, that ok, they could wait one day. The day passed, and no caravan. When Dain announced that the patrol was going to leave the following day, Feagin insisted that they stay. This initiated a conflict.

As a Merchant, Feagin had both a high will and a significant Persuade skill. This put the players at a disadvantage, but what really mixed things up was the fact that the party was split on the conflict. Feagin’s goal was to keep the Patrol there as long as necessary to escort his caravan. Baron (Played by K3), whose Belief was “I will make a good name for the Guard”, decided that appeasing Feagin would help repair the damage that he felt the guard had inflicted on Feagin and his business. The Goal of the rest of the Patrol was to convince Feagin to find another escort.

As the conflict unfolded, many of Feagin’s arguments revolved around his disdain for the guard, and how useless he felt they were, especially as he felt the guard had failed to protect the Territories during the Weasel War three years before. Feagin spoke of a friend from Barkstone who had convinced him that the Guard was increasingly irrelevant. The more he badmouthed the guard, the more Baron’s player squirmed at being on Feagin’s side. Eventually, he stopped adding helping dice, and just stood there agog at the poor manners and disrespect that came out of the merchantmouse. When the Patrol’s disposition was reduced to zero, Feagin still was still close to full disposition. The conflict ended with Feagin winning his goal (keep the patrol as long as necessary), but compromising that he’d let the Patrol leave if another group of Mouse Guard could relieve them, and that he’d pay for the Patrol’s expenses while they waited. The Patrol also came out of the argument Angry.

For the next several mornings, the Patrol cooled their heels waiting for the caravan, and fuming over the repeated abuse doled out by Feagin. Each evening the Patrol would grouse about the increasingly-late caravan, and Feagin would dismiss them, saying, “Oh, it’ll be here tomorrow, for sure.” The caravan finally arrived on the fifth day, at which point Feagin upbraided the Patrol for not jumping to move as quickly as he wanted them to move.

They arrived to relieve Kenzie’s Patrol eight days late to find Kenzie and Sazon both Injured. It seemed that thunderstorm our Patrol had encountered after setting out from Lockhaven had hit Kenzie’s Patrol area as well, resulting in a lightning-struck tree falling across the scent border. While Kenzie’s patrol waited (and waited) for the PCs, a fox had attacked the foraging party three days before the PCs patrol arrived. Kenzie, Sadie and Saxon left to seek reinforcements and the PC’s patrol stayed to guard the foraging expedition and watch out for the possible return of the fox.

The fox returned the next day, and the players initiated a conflict to drive it away, succeeding in doing so, but giving up a major compromise in doing so (Fox’s goal was, “Ohh! Eat some mice!”). The fox didn’t eat any mice, but he was only driven toward the south and not back across the Scent Border. This would be an excellent opportunity for a new mission, if we hadn’t been playing a one-shot. Anyway, once the fox encounter was done, I ended the GM’s Turn.

Despite my constant encouragement to the players to earn Checks, they were unwilling to do so, and so ended up with a short Player’s Turn before ending the session. The whole thing lasted about 4 hours, including the thirty minutes I generally take introducing the characters, system, setting and mission. I had a great time, and look forward to running this Mission again.

I ran it a second time at Endgame’s Minicon later that night, and it also turned out well, though with a significantly different set of outcomes.

In January & February I ran the Springtime “Deliver the Mail” adventure titled as First Flowers. In March (and again this coming May at Kublacon), I’m running this adventure set during the Summer, titled “Second Fruits”. At the July Minicon and at ConQuest (probably), I’ll run an Autumn adventure with the same PCs tentatively titled “Third to Fall”, which will follow Dain’s patrol during the events of Fall: 1152.

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It’s great to read another Actual Play! Thank you for sharing!

When we started, I started by talking about Belief, Goal, Instinct, encouraging each player to describe in turn their Beliefs and Instincts. I explicitly set aside Goals discussion for later…(snip)

This is the kind of advice I’ve been looking for. I’ve had to read some other BurningX posts to get a gist as to what a GM should do for first-time players. In essence: you gotta get the BITs down: Belief Instinct Traits. I think you did a great job by having each player describe their character out loud … even when that character is a pre-gen.

Second Fruits.

This time I decided that I wanted to do something more independent, hence Second Fruits.

Gwendolyn ordered them to Wolfepointe to relieve Kenzie’s patrol, which had been guarding a foraging expedition (Here, I noted the purple die on the Map at Wolfepointe, suggesting that in place of the map, there was a purple mouse figurine). Then I moved the white die I had left near Lockhaven on the map over to Wolfepointe. Then, I asked if there were any questions? Dain piped up, asking if there was any mail, so I gave them two letters to deliver to Darkwater on the way. Dain and the patrol went to Darkwater, encountering a heavy thunderstorm along the way (failed a Weather Watcher check, and got a Twist). Late that evening, they dragged themselves into Darkwater Tired and Hungry.

I’m a bit confused at this point. If you don’t mind answering some questions, I’m hoping to get a better understanding of how to get a game set-up.

What was the mission? I’m thinking that Gwen gave them a mission to get to Wolfepointe. And the GM’s turn may have been a Wilderness Obstacle : Pathfind to get to Wolfepoint, and a Weather obstacle and twist.

Did you get a chance to set goals? I assume that you stopped after Gwen gave the mission to set the initial goals.

Player’s Turn? I’m a bit curious as to how Dain managed to “sneak in” a “drop some mail along the way”. Was this a Player’s Turn thing? Or is it part of Gwen’s mission briefing? It certainly feels like the players could have had a Player’s Turn while at Darkwater.

The next part sounds like a second GM’s turn; but if there was no Player’s Turn, then we have a rather extended GM’s Turn, right?

After sleeping over at Darkwater, the patrol delivered their letters. One of the letters was for a mouse named Feagin …

Wow … I’m still not sure what the mission is. This entire encounter with Feagin sounds like a completely different mission from what Gwen had sent Dain’s group on.

They arrived to relieve Kenzie’s Patrol eight days late to find Kenzie and Sazon both Injured. … a fox had attacked the foraging party three days before the PCs patrol arrived.

That part sounded like a third GM’s turn to me.

Despite my constant encouragement to the players to earn Checks, they were unwilling to do so, and so ended up with a short Player’s Turn before ending the session. The whole thing lasted about 4 hours, including the thirty minutes I generally take introducing the characters, system, setting and mission.

Alright, after reading this entire thing again, it sounds like there was just one huge GM’s turn, and a very short Player’s turn at the end. In my humble opinion, it might work better if you kept the first GM’s turn short and allow the players to see a couple of GM/Player Turn cycles. It may be a bit tough to “railroad” two or more GM’s turns together, but here’s how I would structure it.

(Talk about BITs, introduce character sheet)

I. GM Turn 1. Gwen sends the patrol on a two-part mission. Deliver the mail to Darkwater, and then proceed to relieve Kenzie’s patrol at Wolfpointe.

(Talk about Goals and earning player checks)

I.A. Wilderness Obstacle: Pathfinder check to get to Darkwater. Simple Ob test. Inflict Angry condition if failed.

I.B. Weather Obstacle: Weather watch check. Simple Ob test. Success gives the patrol time to find cover. Failure makes them tired/hungry.

II. Player’s Turn 1. Give the players a chance to learn recovery checks from conditions suffered at GM’s turn. Otherwise, see if the players want to do some “extra stuff” to prepare for relieving Kenzie’s patrol. Defer mail delivery inquiries until GM Turn 2. More than likely, the players won’t have earned extra checks, but it’s good to let them see that checks are useful. Maybe you can have “messenger mice” from Kenzie asking about relief, and that can lead to the patrol learning about the precarious nature of Kenzie’s assignment.

(Awards and such)

III. GM Turn 2. Feagin enlists the patrol as an escort.

(Set new Goals)

III.A. Mouse Obstacle: Feagin wants the patrol to wait for the caravan. The patrol should want to get to Kenzie ASAP. I’d use a simple persuasion VS will test here. You could try a conflict, but it may be a bit early for first-time players … and it may be hard to come up with a compromise. If the players win, then they don’t wait for the caravan, and they leave immediately.

(Before resolving the above, remind the players about earning checks. This may be a good time to earn 2 checks against a VS check).

III.A.1. Twist. Color it Mouse or Wilderness: The patrol is waiting for the caravan … and it’s late. Let the players suggest solutions, but Feagin may want the players to go out and look for it. If the players resist, then this turns into another Persuasion vs Will test. If the players agree or are persuaded, then you have a (followup) Scouting test.

III.B. Wilderness Obstacle: Pathfind to Lonepine.

IV. Player’s Turn 2. Patrol arrives at Lonepine. Let them do stuff … like find out exactly what kind of business Feagin might have. Or grab more stuff to prep for relieving Kenzie. You might want to tie in Feagin’s business somehow in GM Turn 3, if it proves interesting enough. And of course, there might be news about Kenzie’s patrol from people in town.

(Awards and such)

V. GM’s Turn 3. (Open-ended). Depending on what happens on the Players Turn, you could have an interesting plot on Feagin here. Otherwise, we go on to Kenzie.

(Set new Goals)

V.A. Fight Conflict: Fox

VI. Player’s Turn 3. Let the players conclude the mission with checks they’ve earned. If there’s any “unanswered business” from prior turns, try to resolve them here.

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Happy to help as well as I can! I’ve gotten a tremendous deal of insight reading the Forums here, so I figured it only right to give something back, however small.

Oh! You know, I totally should have written out what the Mission/twists/etc. were.

Mission: Relieve Kenzie’s Patrol. Guard the Wolfepointe berry expedition until they return to Wolfepoint.
Weather Obstacle: Thunderstorm, Ob. 4
Weather Twist Fox
Mouse Obstacle: Feagin

I failed to mention goals, which we did talk about (though, sometimes I do forget to stop and encourage players to write down goals before we get to the meat of the adventure, that time I remembered). I don’t remember what each of the goals was, though I believe Baron’s was “Ensure everyone gets to Wolfepoint and back safely,” which, along with his belief of “I will make a good name for the Mouse Guard” meant that he didn’t have a problem with delaying the relief mission to help Feagin.

Before the patrol left Lockhaven they asked if there was any mail to take with them toward Wolfepoint. I gave them a couple of pieces to bring along (which gave me an even better way to introduce Feagin).

Sorry about not making that clearer!

That’s good sense-making stuff there. I tried again and again to get the players to Earn Checks, but they weren’t willing to increase their risk levels. No matter how much I tried to explain the usefulness of Checks when the Player’s Turn came. If I had given them a short mission with a Player’s Turn right after, then given the opportunity to spend the checks they had (likely just the one each), they might have realized how useful the checks were. Then I could move on to the second GM’s turn and the meat of the mission. I’m going to fiddle with the structure of Second Fruits a bit before I run it at KublaCon, and write the whole Fall adventure with this in mind.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it!

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Glad I’m able to help out a bit!

I gotta say this little bit next, and I hope I don’t embarass you. I’ve never GM’d at a convention, and I’ve always held those who GM in high regard. Back then, in my old frame of mind, it was strange to find people who would spend time and money to attend a convention where they have to be “GM bot/servants” rather than just being “players having fun”.

So, I’m gonna pick on you… THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for being a convention GM. I know the players probably never give you enough appreciation for what you do, so on behalf of all of us happy-go-lucky players, THANK YOU!

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You’re welcome?!

Well, you are. One of the nice things about this hobby is how well it accomodates different styles of play. As for me, I enjoy playing RPGs, but I really enjoy running them. It’s great that I get a chance to tell stories with new people at conventions, to supplement the fix I get from the times I get to run for my regular gaming group. I am especially fortunate that I am also able to live in the SF Bay Area which has three major regional cons, and several other mini-conventions. These are opportunities to try new things, to explore different ideas, both as a player and as a GM. None of those conventions would happen without players paying good money to participate.

As cool as it is to GM games, I’m well aware that the best part of my hobby (to me) doesn’t happen without lots of players. So in that vein, thank YOU.

And I’ll finish this little bit here with thanks to the man who brought us all together in this particular burning endeavour. Thanks Luke! Without game designers where would we be?