Steam Guard? Punk Mice?

Mouse Guard Hacks and Expansions
1

Over here Illern mentioned steam punk mice and my brain went “ooooooh”. It’s steam punk London, from the point of a view of a mouse. Instead of cloaks the Guard wears topcoats and top hats. They fight with itty bitty pistols. (Which probably wouldn’t work, from a physics point of view, but I’m ignoring that.)

Nature probably wouldn’t need to be changed. Skills might need some tweaking, but nothing major. Sewer rats can replace weasels. Not sure how Weather Watcher works in this setting. Science gets replaced with crazy steam punk designs.

(Has this been done already and my quick search missed it?)

Gonna go reread the rules and work on an actually setting doc!
–Victor

2

I am picturing some odd mix of Blade Runner and Steam, for whatever reason.

How about everything that isn’t a Mouse is some sort of clockwork? And clockwork Mice are the Weasel equivalents. The only things left alive are true Mice. (And maybe some crazy slumbering giants (people?) who hibernate in glass tubes, or some such.)

Weather Watcher? Tarot cards or some sort of unscientific magick should be involved, IMO. Maybe some kind of perpetual rainstorm over London? A result of a permanent imbalance of nature that resulted from some grand crime against the natural world (because London is never miserable & rainy).

Maybe it’s the wine I had with dinner…

3

I like your Weather Watcher way more than what I have below! Mine seems to mundane for steam punk. Tarot card and magic sounds awesome.

–Victor

Here’s what I have to far, all subject to change, revision and wholesale deletion:

The turn of the century. 1899. British steamers project the power of this great Empire across the world Colonies on four continents power the turbines of London, sustaining a city unlike any other. Top hats and monocles are in. Powerful steam engines drive trains, ships, factories, anything a modern civilization could need. And below it all? Mice.

Premise
What’s this about? What do characters do in this setting?

The characters are Special Constable, or SpecCons who report directly to Her Majesty. The S.C.s are the first line of defense against the rats. They carry important documents for the Queen. They also solve crimes and keep the peace.

Overarching Conflict
What’s the overarching conflict?

First is the continual war with the rats. London produces more than enough waste to support rats and mice but the rats are greedy by nature. Additionaly there is the threat of industrailzation. Mice are field dwelers by nature and London can wreak their mind. Some mice folk simply can’t take it and go insane with the stress. Most are safely locked up. A few need to be hunted down and captured. Or killed.

Missions
What kind of missions do the characters go on?

Deliver dispatches.
Fight off rats.
Steal specialized material from humans for mice scientists.
Solve crimes.
Capture insane mice before they harm anyone.
Escort members of the royal family.

Territories

Central London in the late 1800s. The mouse population there is much larger than in straight mouse guard. Travel is either by mostly secure pathways or by hitching a ride on human transport. The second is dangourus but much much fast.

Denizens
What creatures or NPCs populate the setting?

Mice.
Rats, the enemey. (Replaces weseals.)
Humans, but there’s no interaction. It would be like interacting with a mountain.
Lots of ferral dogs and cats.

Nature
What is the unique Nature of your characters?

Same mousy Nature.

Traits
What are the traits for your setting? These are easy to come up with!

Innovative
Oh, shiny! (Likes metal things)
Mechanically Inclined
Clever Fingers (Good with really small mechanism)

Name Changed Traits

Wolfs Snout > Dog’s Snout

Skills
New Skills

Engineer
Clockwork Maker
Steam Engine Operator
Detective
Chemist

Name Changed Skills

Glazier > Glass Maker
Harvester > Scavenger
Healer > Doctor
Loremouse > Historian
Pathfinder > Street Mouse
Weather Watcher > People Watcher
Armorer > Gunsmith

Removed Skills

Apiarist

Name Changed Condition

Food is plentiful in London, so Hungry and Thirst becomes Scared. London is a busy fightening place and it’s easy for a mouse to become frightened.

Other bits

People Watcher: Instead of seasons there are crowds. More people around make tasks more difficult. A skilled mouse can predict where people will be, which functions like Weather Watching.

Weapons:

Sword
Dagger
Pistol
Rifle
Machine Gun (very rare, but they existed!)

To Do

Figure out exactly how People Watching works.
Stat guns.
Other stuff I’m forgetting?

4

(Pictures to set the mood! Picture 1 and picture 2. Imagine the second with a mouse.)

5

More gonzo!

Steampunk London is, like, so 19th century. Make it crazy, I say. When I hear “Steampunk”, I think, the whole f*cking enchilada of gonzo crazy because clockwork robots & dudes with monocles? You cannot play that straight.

The entire Mouse world lives on a zeppelin. Maybe there’s nothing else except the zeppelin.
Or a steam train. The Flying Dutchman of steam trains.

People watcher sounds like an interesting idea, though. If there’s an element of Magick, then people screw it up (whether people means Mice or Humans, doesn’t matter). The more eyes on a situation, the less likely the impossible is about to occur. That’s just the way the miraculous happens… without empirical data, observation, the like.

Or, maybe Mice are agents of God. And they make Miracles, but it’s tougher when Humans are around. That’s getting further afield.

See, if it were me, it would be post-apocalyptic Steampunk, where the clockwork reality is taking over from the world of flesh (anti-Tribe 8?). Humans are sleeping, suspended in time, or something… but there’s nothing else except Mice that’s alive in the world. Mice and cockroaches. And fungus, which the Mice & cockroaches eat. Mice are all that stands between life on the zeppelin-world and the clockwork oblivion of the end times.

Your ideas are way more plausible and grounded in the practical, and way easier to sell.

6

You’re totally right, more gonzo! I’m also not really happy with the idea of humans running around. How about different mice city states, with steam punk flare? Airships and flapping wing aircraft to get around. A lot of the above stays the same, but People Watching turns into the still unknown magic thing.

–Victor

7

Yes!

Walking is so boring. You need airships, steam trains, ridiculous stuff. Where you walk from town to town in Mouse Guard, you need an ocean liner or zeppelin. You can’t travel anywhere worthwhile by walking.

City states? Maybe a few metropoli. New York, Paris, London, Shanghai. Nothing small, everything ridiculous and big… or, a giant city. Everything by train or airship, though. Neighborhoods, ghettos, and a monstrosity of a city.

8

This reminded me (everytime someone say’s city state I think of ancient mediterranean :slight_smile: ) of an old idea of mine; taking the steam power from the ancient greeks and developing it from there making a late Antiquity coloured with steam punk, either a steam punk Rome conquering the world and staying on top for yet another era or city states all competing for dominance and high and low conspirations and intrigues around this. In many ways Rome was like later industrlized cities in it’s structure and there also were upper non-noble with a lot of mercantile power and possibilities to invest and a money economy and stuff like that.

9

Would you really need all of these, looking at Mouse Guard Original I think Clockwork Maker should be part of Engineer but at a high difficulty rather than being a special skill. Chemist should be part of Scientist rather than it’s own skill. On the other hand going into the modern society we get more specialized knowledge so more specialized skills might fit.

It could be cool though to find a replacement of some sort.

I like these two very much.

10

What if People (humans) are the weather on the Zeppelin world?

Their heads are locked on black devices (perhaps not unlike this infernal Blackberry). They are somnambulists, unconscious of their environment. They are massive, like Moose in Mouse Guard, but sleepwalking and causing massive destruction where they wander. People are like forces of nature.

Or, maybe People are conscious of the destruction they create (some morality play about being Green)?

There’s a lot of interesting ways to port Humans into the setting, I think.

11

Adrift in the Aether: Steam Mouse take 2

Premise
What’s this about? What do characters do in this setting?

This game is about mice using the power of steam of take on the world around them. The forest is slowly being brought under the control of the machines. The character play Special Constables in service to Her Majesty the Queen. Nature constantly threatens Her Majesty’s Territory. The constables control the machines that allow the Territory to be governed effectively.

Overarching Conflict
What’s the overarching conflict?

The conflict is that of nature versus mouse. The mice of the Territory have grown behind their weak nature-respecting roots. Now they seek to dominate the land around them with the power of steam and aether.

Missions
What kind of missions do the characters go on?

Enforce the orders of Her Majesty.
Defend the Territory from animal incursions.
Remove undesirable mice from the general population.
Repair damage to The Wall that surrounds the Territory.
Supervise building projects.
Repair Her Majesty’s machines.

The Territory

The Territory is the land ruled directly by Her Majesty. It is encircled by The Wall which keeps its inhabitants safe. Outside the wall is danger and wilderness. To suggest otherwise is treason.

Nature
What is the unique Nature of your characters?

Same mousy Nature.

Traits
What are the traits for your setting? These are easy to come up with!

Innovative
Oh, shiny! (Likes metal things)
Mechanically Inclined
Clever Fingers (Good with really small mechanism)

Skills
New Skills

Engineer
Clockwork Maker
Steam Engine Operator
Detective
Chemist

Name Changed Skills

Glazier > Glass Maker
Harvester > Scavenger
Healer > Doctor
Loremouse > Historian
Pathfinder > Street Mouse
Weather Watcher > People Watcher
Armorer > Gunsmith

Aether Tester

Just as air carries sound, aether carries light. Using the right combination of clockwork and chemicals aether can also power the trains and airships used to travel the Territory. However, just like air, aether changes and this happens it effects the Her Majesty’s machines. An aether tester uses his specialized tools to understand the coming changes.

Weapons:

Sword
Dagger
Pistol
Rifle
Machine Gun

12

Neat ideas.

So, animals remain a threat to machinegun-wielding Mice?

What’s the role of the Tech? Either it’s an evil & an impediment to self-actualization, or it’s noise in the background.

I like the use of the aether as a “fuel” source & driver of tech, but that relationship between tech and nature (as in Mother Nature rather than Nature (Mouse)) should be clarified for the theme. Coal, dirty oil, greasy punk… don’t lose it if tech is to be ugly.

So, going back to the original question after the question about tech, do animals remain a threat? Are they something that fights for the essential soul of mice, by keeping mice grounded in the reality of Mother Nature? (If tech is essentially evil, then animals are a kind of good, I think)

What’s all the clockwork, gears, steam & coal (aether?)? What is it a symbol of? What’s the tech-punk center of the gonzo, or is it just aether?

Just wondering how you’ve shifted the cosmology to fit a steampunk vibe…