So, I’m going to be hacking Mouse Guard to pick up an old Buffy the Vampire Slayer game that we set aside years ago. It’s set in Victorian England, so it’s two parts BtVS, one part Dracula, with a dash of Castle Falkenstein, and a smattering of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and whatever other Victoriana happens to be at hand.
PCs are not mice, just appropriating the rules. And, following Luke’s helpful guide to hacking Mouse Guard:
When hacking, these elements are most important:
• Premise – What’s this about? What do characters do in this setting?
Characters protect the innocent from vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness.
• Missions
Each “mission” will involve a confrontation with a supernatural threat.
• Conflicts
Magic may constitute its own form of conflict, but I’m not sure.
• Weapons
I’m picking up the firearms in in the helpful 1920s thread and will be adding enchanted weapons and the like as we go. Some unique weapons will give characters an additional level of “reach” on the Supernatural Order. I will also need to figure out how magic works with regard to weapons and conflicts
• Overarching Conflict
Still thinking on this. See OPEN QUESTIONS, below.
• Territories
Victorian London and its environs. Different social situations serve the same function as different towns.
• Denizens
I give you, the Supernatural Order (from lowest to highest):
• Natural animals
• Human beings
• Vampires -- The Slayer -- Scientific Creations (The Invisible Man, Mr. Hyde, etc.)
• Demons -- Supernatural Beasts (Werewolves, hellhounds) -- Common Faerie
• True Demons (The Mayor) -- Mythological Creatures (Dragons) -- Faerie Lords
• Hellgods (Glory) -- H.G. Wells-style Martians
• Skills
Still in progress. See OPEN QUESTIONS, below.
• Abilities
Nature (Victorian) can be used for fleeing, being productive (men), being domestic (women), and being proper. I figure that this will prove a nice contrast between Nature pulling characters in one direction and Duty pulling them in the other. Plus, it highlights gender roles much like the BtVS source material.
Still need factors for Resources and, particularly, Circles. I know that “Social Class” replaces “Hometown” for the +1D bonus to each, but haven’t moved beyond that.
• Traits
Still working, will like steal much from Eden Studio’s BtVS game
• Recruitment
We’ll be modeling the characters based on the previous incarnation of the game, so I’m skipping this.
OPEN QUESTIONS
• A magic system
I’ve looked briefly at a few threads on adding magic to MG, and kinda like the suggestion that magic could be used to aid other skills by summoning tools and weapons. It should also be able to be used like Militarist and Scientist to affect beings higher on the Supernatural Order. I’m not sure if magical conflict should be its own type of conflict.
• The overarching conflict
Taking out the outdoorsmanship aspects of the game (namely, Wilderness and Weather conflicts) pretty much negates the value of the skills Hunter, Cartographer, Loremouse, Pathfinder, Scout, Survivalist, and Weather Watcher. I’m thinking of replacing Weather conflicts with a sort of Supernatural Badness conflict. The TV show was rife with episodes where some strange magical effect or curse manifested itself, and the Scoobies had to figure out how to undo it. This could fill a similar role, couldn’t it?
• Nature seems one of the hardest things to hack properly. What do you think of my solution?
• General oversight: Does this sound playable? Have I made any decisions that would obviously break the game?