GM: Harry Lee
Players: Fred Lott, Joe England, and Sean Nittner
System: Mouse Guard 2nd Edition
Sienna, Bastian, and Delvin, a patrol of Guard mice were sent from Sprucetuck to lay the scene border along the edges of the territory.
On their way, they ran into Elmis, a fellow Guard mouse and learned that his patrol had been ambushed by weasels. Burdened with great responsibility the patrol had to decide if they would continue on with their very important mission of laying the scent barrier, or pause to help the injured Elmis recover his lost companions.
While Bastian tended to his wounds Sienna, the patrol leader but also youngest of the mice consulted with Delvin on what they should do. After some deliberation they agreed that mice in immediate peril was more pressing, and that they would help Elmis and find his patrol.
What followed was a brutal battle with weasels [fight with animals conflict leaving us all injured], laying the scene border [players turn], tracking the weasels to their den (a rabbit burrow that they took over), discovering their plan to attack Sprucetuck, shouting our defiance, and then fleeing out of the warren to safety [chase conflict].
What Rocked
I really enjoyed the difficult discussions we had about duty. Sienna and Delvin had different beliefs but they both respected each other. It was fantastic to get that by in from the players to respect that neither decision was an easy one to make.
Second edition has done some great work. The traits are notably way better balanced (level 2 used to be unbelievably powerful) and the starting adventure is a great one (the sample adventure in first edition felt like it was trying to reproduce Fall 1152 too closely, this was so much more open for the Mice to direct).
Harry limiting the game to three players was really smart. It meant that in our TWO conflicts, we all got to be active participants in every round. Speaking of which, two GM turns, each with a conflict, and one player turn. Hellz yeah, we were some awesome mice!
Speaking of conflicts, ours were intense! We first fought off weasels with axes and a bow, and then had to flee out of their warren. We could have just crept out silently but it was so worth it to yell “The Guard knows! The Guard will be prepared!” before hauling ass out of there. My particular memento was leaving my cloak behind at the base of a warren to show that the guard was here.
There was a really cool scene with Devlin and Elmis where we needed them to buck up and move along without us. Devlin put his sword in the weakened Guard Mouse’s paw as Sienna told him, he could do this, it was his duty to do this. LOVED IT! Harry’s depiction of Emlis was also wonderful. Ashamed and scared but dedicated as well. So good.
What could have improved
Oh gosh, hard to say. This game was so good.
