Some background: we gathered at a free play table at the con to play. I had the idea of reskinning the Moathouse from T1 The Village of Hommlet to be a mouse-sized fort, built out of what was once a mouse shelter used in human experiments. This was my first time running Mausritter, and my second time with the Moathouse. I have also never played Into The Odd, which I understand is a big inspiration for Mausritter. The players were mostly 5e, only a couple had played a more neo-old-schooly game with me before.
We made our characters together at the table, mostly following the random creation rules. But, hey, it's a one shot, and if they didn't want to be striped or have a lumpy face I wasn't gonna stop 'em. This was a bit last minute, so I didn't have any pregens set up. Next time, I would throw together a bunch. Character creation is definitely quick, but not when we only have one list of random characteristics and everyone has to roll them in order.
The bandits were changed to bandit mice, and I obviously had to change the giant rats (to cockroaches, best I could come up with). I also appended mouse to about half the nouns I said (mouse-door, mouse-bridge, mouse-office, etc.) Lareth the Beautiful is now Lareth Smoothfur, an old lab mouse, who is convinced that the experiments he witnessed were part of some divine process, and he replicates them crudely in his tunnels built under his old old cage. The mayor of mouse town gathered up a gang of mice to go figure out why people were disappearing around the fort.
Some highlights:
- One mouse burned down the spider's tower. As it fled out the top, another mouse rode it down the fort wall like a horse, whereupon a third mouse stabbed it with a human sized quill (their 2-handed weapon).
- A tick ambushed a mouse from the ceiling, but the mouse dodged out of the way and put a barrel on it. Then threw the barrel out the window.
- Bandit-mice rolled neutral on their reaction. The PCs argued with them, until winning them over with the story about riding the spider like a horse down the wall. They decided to become the bandits' supplier of beer and grain, and tell the mayor it was the spider all along.
- On their way back, one PC started a mutiny and was quickly stabbed to death.
Pros:
- Fast combat. Seriously, lightning fast. Makes it hard to go back to rolling to hit. A great combination of brutally swift, but with just enough of a buffer to keep the PCs from dropping instantly.
- The general idea of just moving forward assuming the PCs are competent enough to do what the players want. The idea that if the PCs approach an encounter stealthily, they just win initiative. No futzing with stealth checks and perception and surprise, they can just do it if they plan, all handled in fiction.
- Real cute art. Real slick layout.
- Possibly just a player preference, but from the feedback I got, they wanted just a bit more of a skill system. Some of them definitely wanted to know explicitly how stealthy they were, at least more than "always sufficiently stealthy if you say you're sneaking." This didn't bother me, and is the sort of thing I might add for my players in an actual campaign if they wanted.
- Character creation is definitely fast, but having only one copy of the game and passing it around for each person to roll on the different tables was pretty slow. I think combining fur color, fur pattern, and physical details all on one table could work. (I also only just now notice the instant mouse generator linked in the pdf...)
- The birthsign was also never once brought up once we start. The backgrounds informed mouse personality much more. I think a small mechanical bonus/minus for birthsign might add a little spice in the right place, but I'm not sure what those would be.
- Armor is maybe a bit weird. Had a player disappointed when upgrading from light to heavy, and the only benefit is not having to wear a shield. The player asked what bonus he would have if he kept the shield and heavy armor, and, by the rules, it's nothing, which is a bit unsatisfying. Not sure how else to have it work though.
- Hex crawl procedure
- Spellcasting
- Character advancement
I ended up with a longer Cons list than Pros, but that's not to say I didn't like the system. I'm really looking forward to using it again, nitpicks aside. I'm also on the lookout now for adventures that can easily be reskinned to a mousey scale. Maybe some of the Dolmenwood stuff? I may post in the future on mousifying other old schooley products.
