Trying MG ...

Mouse Guard Lockhaven
1

Well I read about MG on BoingBoing last week and just couldn’t resist an RPG with mice. The intent is to play sessions with my wife and two kids (9 / 6). We are pretty sure the 9 yr. old will grasp the concept pretty well. The 6 yr. old will probably have attention span problems but is excited to play.

Anyway. My wife and I tried our first game last night - so we could be ready to play with the kids this weekend. We went through the sample grain peddler mission. Since we only had one player I toned down the snakes nature & the peddler’s stats.

My wife played Sadie. She failed the scout test to find the Grain Peddler, but found the flipped cart. She was going to look through the cart, but was surprised by the snake. The snake failed to scare her off. So the fight was on. In the last round both sides got in some really good hits. The snake was hurt, but she was taken down to a disposition of 0 (snake was taken down over 1/2). We decided she gashed the snake and was knocked out by the snakes recoil (attacked by the tail). The snake hurt and thinking Sadie dead went back to check on it’s eggs.

Sadie took the following conditions: Hungry/Thirsty, Tired, Injured.

After she woke up she, barley able to walk she tried to search the cart, but found nothing. As she tried making her way to Barkstone she was having a hard time due to injury. We decided a circle roll was best to see if someone from Barkstone might find her. We did a circle roll, but thinking about it I think she should have done a survivalist roll.

Anyway she was found and carried back to town.

At that point we basically ended. We talked about what would happen (recovery / points distribution / anything else she wanted the MG to do).

It was a good learning experience. We figure in playing with the kids we will have to modify the conflict a bit - we aren’t sure the 6 yr. old will figure it out. But that will be minor.

We are going to run the story again today (Saturday) with the kids. Using all pre-made characters. Going once again through the Peddler sample. It should go smoother now that I know a bit more about the GM side.

–Anonparrot.

2

Looking forward to hearing about the game with your kids! Make sure you post it over in the Playing BW, BE and MG forum, if you have a chance. :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for posting this! Sounds like you did fine.

I’m sure if you explain the conflict system to your 6 yr old – do you want to attack, fake out, run around or protect yourself – and explain it’s to make sure that everyone gets a turn, she’ll understand. Also, she’ll be part of a team of three so it’ll make MUCH more sense in that context.

4

The family got together and played last night. My wife played Kenzie / R. (9) played Saxon / M. (6) played Lieam.

We talked about the mission and read through the character sheets. Even M. (6) pretty much understood what the basics where.

Here is basically what happened.

Saxon & Lieam argued about who should scout (even though Saxon had no scout skill). They argued about it … so it was a persuader roll to decided. Saxon barely won. And thus couldn’t find any trace of the peddler.

When they ran across the cart and started to look around - the snake rushed them to drive them off. Everyone rolled to see if they were scared off (cannot remember what I had them roll against) - anyway they all ran, but the snake didn’t chase.

At that point the patrol discussed what they where going to do. They decided to go back and search the cart.

The snake attacked. We explained the conflict and what to do. Both kids pretty much got the idea. They had fun figured out what to do in what order. The battle took three rounds. In the second round Saxon looked like he was dead (0 disposition), but knocked out and hurt bad so he had to sit out of the third round. By that point Lieam (the 6 yr. old) only had to hit the snake to take away the 1 remaining disposition. The snake maneuvered and Lieam feinted. Lieam was successful and we decided he chopped the snakes tail off and it slithered off into the woods to heal up or die. I have never seen a 6 yr. old so excited! The rest of the patrol was hurt pretty bad as well … 2 or 3 disposition left. Everyone took Conditions - Saxons where the worst.

They talked and decided they still had to search the cart even though Saxon was hurt bad. Kenzie found the map. Then it was the end of the GM turn.

At the players turn the talked about what they could do. The decided to drag Saxon (badly hurt) back to Barkstone (closest town) and heal up so they could figure out more about the map.

We rolled on conditions and they tried to find healers - which 2 of them did. I had them roll a circle test to see how good of a healer they could find. Then decided based on their roll how many dice the healer would roll. Everyone pretty much healed up except Saxon - he had 1 condition he wasn’t able to recover from right away.

In the end they had an absolute blast. When we where done they wanted to play again immediately. That 1st sample mission took us 1 1/2 hours to get through roughly. And they wanted to play again!

So we will go through the next sample mission before creating their actual mice so they get more of a feel for it.

We did play a little bit loose with the rules here and there so make it easier on the kids (but not much). I think this helped keep the game going faster and kept their attention. They loved rolling the dice.

–Anonparrot

5

Sounds like everyone had a great time! Well done and glad to hear it!

Just one thing…

From this, it sounds like all the mice had separate dispositions. If so, this is something you really want to avoid. If they want to help each other (and there are only 3 of them), they all help each other with one disposition roll. Doing so places them on the same team, with no one mouse singled out; all share in the victory or defeat (and they have the opportunity to have a better disposition as a result).

They can each also give a help die to the person who is acting at that particular point in the conflict.

6

Hey Anon, I second Rafe’s observation. Make the players all part of one team – all subject to one disposition, each taking one action in the exchange, each helping her teammates on their actions. It’ll make play go much faster and the patrol will be more effective.

-L

7

Good points. I’m still working through all the rules of conflict and stuff … looks like I missed that point when I was reading / and re-reading … :slight_smile:

I’ll have to look at that again and change it next time.

Thanks.