The patrol will make it’s way to Barkstone next session and i want to hit them hard with springweather. But it is hard, i would have wanted a bit more advice and the book on how to use weather.
I decided that the big spot on the map north of Barkstone and Pepplebrock is a huge mountain and the two towns are connected by a mountainpath that can be tricky to navigate. A wilderness obstacle in this could be an avalanche (be it snow or rock) but this sounds more like a cool twist.
I am certain i can find a good wilderness Ob but weather is hard. The two are very closely related i think. I am not even sure if a Journey Conflict counts as Weather or Wilderness Ob.
Journey Conflicts are hard anyway. I have no problem with the abstraction of fighting against the season but i have a hard time finding a conflict goal for it.
What would be a good Journey Conflict for this? Right now the weather is cold, there is snow on the ground but it is close to melting. Should i just make the Journey the Wilderness Obstacle and let them Weather Watch for the Weather Obstacle?
Weather is hard…
Please help me dear Mouse Guard forum (the GM Turn should end when they reach Pebblebrock)
Tim
Edit: I really would like to have a complex obstacle for weather and show the players just how harsh an enemy weather can be. I want to look at this and fear it as much as the player went “oh shit” when he saw the 15 dispo of the raccoon that wanted to eat him
What’s the mission? One of my favorite sessions involved a journey conflict for getting a cart of mail (or was it grain?) through a spring ice storm. Sucking mud, falling tree limbs, and freezing rain assailed the patrol, but they pulled out the bigpaw trait for the win!
Having to ensure the shipment’s safety made writing conflict goals easy. Journey conflicts use pathfinder as their main skill, which says to me that they fall into the wilderness category of hazards, but the weather (after all, the GM uses the season rating for his dice) will be a factor in your descriptions. Use mice and/or animals for the other mission obstacle and you won’t be redundant.
The mission is as follows: Get Mathew and yourself safely to Pebblebrock.
I will start with a Journey Conflict. The patrol needs to get over a mountain pass to Pebblebrock. Spring has the following weapons
Snow Cover: +1d Defend
Snow Avalanche +1s Attack
Rock Avalance *only useable once +2d +1s Attack
The goal is to split the party up. They then will have to deal with the consequences of the weatherchange. An obstacle for each group of mice and possibly a pathfinder to Pebblebrock.
In the players turn they will be able to search for Mathew if he get’s lost. They may also start to prepare because a wild mountain goat was seen in the region. (this will be the next mission. I am thinking a Nature 8 animal…)
Dealing with pathfinder tests and weather for the second mission obstacle seems redundant after the journey conflict, no? What about a mice hazard centered on Mathew or introducing the mountain goat?
That beast is going to be pretty high in the natural order.
The journey conflict will more be about “the mountain” fighting the patrol - just using spring as the abstaction for that. I could call it the mountain and give him the strength of spring…
The second obstacle will be about changes brought by the weather. It seems to be logical i think.
When I ran a journey conflict, I gave the wilderness the goal of making the patrol sick, and described attacks as weather like hail and rain that would make the mice sick, and defended with terrain like rivers that would impede the patrol in their goal. So if it was me, I would probably follow a Journey with mouse or animal obstacles. But your Journey sounds like it will focus more on terrain, so following that up with weather obstacles should be okay.
As for ideas on complex weather obstacles, how about these:
Snow - A late blizzard hits the patrol. A pathfinder test is needed because the route is obscured, then a survivalist or carpenter test to make skis/snowshoes, then a health test to continue the journey.
Rain - Heavy rain turns the ground to mud. The patrol needs to pass both a moderate health test AND a high will test to carry on in such miserable conditions.
Heatwave - Same effect as Rain.