My Mouse Guard Blog (And Mouse Guard in general)

[Kexizzoc]

So what's the verdict on Mouse Guard here? Who's played it? I've made my way through one session of it, and was rather impressed. Granted, I'm doing a tiny little two-player game that I'm Storytelling and playing in with my girlfriend, and we were playing Tenderpaws (the lowest rank of Mice you can play), so we got absolutely walloped. But it was the first game where I think had more fun BECAUSE I was losing. We got completely invested in our characters, purely through the mechanics of the game driving the story and our characters forward. How does this compare to your experiences?

I'm running a blog where I translate my game into an ongoing story; I just finished Chapter 1, which covers our first session. I'd appreciate any feedback; what should I get rid of, what could I improve on, what do you want to see more of, etc. I noticed a Blog section here on ENWorld, is that open for anyone to submit to?

The link: legendsofthecity.wordpress.com

 

[darjr]

I ran a short campaign. It was a ton of fun. However character creation by the book didn't really work well for us. I ran the intro adventure but the players strayed right off the bat into unknown territory. The setting is amazing for this, and it's presentation in the book really helped.

It was difficult for our group to play by the rules at first, we'd keep dropping into a very trad style of play, and that was awesome. We had a great time when we got a better handle on the rules, even if we never quite played by the book. But I think I fundamentally can't play a game by the book.

I'd love to play more, I think I just might run it again for a local con.


here is a clickable link to your blog.
http://legendsofthecity.wordpress.com/

 

[Kexizzoc]

Thanks for the link. I can totally see what you mean about it allowing you to stray into the unknown; I'm usually a big supporter of premade adventures, but the ones that came in the rulebook really seemed... unimportant? half-hearted? Once we started I immediately saw why; the game is designed to immediately jump off the rails and go off in whatever direction the winds takes it.

I was having trouble playing by the rules as well, which again the game seems to support. Particularly the distinction between "GM's Turn" and "Player's Turn" seems very fluid to me... I plan to take liberties in the next session and allow the characters to guide the story for a while. Partially because we got knocked around so badly, it seemed like our mice would take the time to actually plan out the next expedition. Again, this seems like a part of the game that you can adapt to your group.

I was having a conversation with my brother as to whether Mouse Guard (and Burning Wheel for that matter) was "rules-light". I found Mouse Guard to be difficult to LEARN, but fairly simple to PLAY once I knew what to do. To be fair, I was learning just from reading the rulebooks, which is far from the easiest way to learn any game. I still don't know that I would call it "rules-light"; though on the complexity-to-depth spectrum, you get a lot of bang for your buck. Not having played Burning Wheel, I get the same vibe from that game.

 

[SurpriseGolem]

I realize this is an older post - but I actually got to play Mouse Guard at GenCon in 2011 (might have been 2010) The game was still in development, but I loved the concept and the rules - which I'm sure have changed some. I would love to play it again, however, not many gamers in the area.