Some questions after my first MG mission

[Odie]

@BWA

So I’m hearing the following things on this thread:

1. The patrol’s goal was fine, except when the snake’s disposition dice ran out, it should NOT have been killed, since that wasn’t the goal of its opponents.

2. The death of a PC was perhaps not a wise goal for the first major conflict. I probably should have stuck to “Carry Desmond down the hole”, so if they whiffed there could have been a follow-on conflict to get him back.

Does that sound right?

In case it hasn’t been explicitly stated, #1 is correct. #2 isn’t necessarily. I think it’s perfectly fine to shoot for a PC death in the first major conflict! Life’s hard in the Guard, and in any case it’s not easy to completely murder someone in Mouse Guard.

@NJW

The snake’s goal is “eat Desmond.” My true goal is “don’t let any mice get eaten”, but that’s implicit in the conflict, so I say that my goal is “make the snake afraid of mice from now on”.

If one or the other of us wins, great. But if it’s a tie and we both get what we asked for, then I actually lose, because my goal was really “don’t let any mice get eaten and make the snake afraid of mice from now on.” Meanwhile, the snake was honest about its goal, so it gets what it really wanted.

What you have to realize is that if your opponent sets a goal that you cannot abide, the only way to ensure it doesn’t happen is to win without tying. That’s the reason why it’s not worthwhile to script incompatible goals, because by winning you already deny your opponent his goal. The only way to deny your opponent his goal is to win yourself, not to set a goal counter to his.

-B