The Mouse Guard RPG is by Luke Crane and David Petersen, and is based upon the award-winning comic book and graphic novel series of the same name. Released originally in 2008 as a hard cover version (a PDF version is also available), it promptly won several design awards and received almost universally positive reviews. Based on that success, Archaia Studio Press decided to release a deluxe box set which contains updates the rules and repackages the game to be even more friendly for those new to RPGs. While the box set was a long time in the making, and suffered a number of production delays, it finally reached stores this summer and within just a couple of months the first printing sold out. Why? To put it simply, the game, which was already beautifully illustrated and written, now is fantastic - the added features, rules, and accessories included with the box are well worth the price (which at $69.95 MSRP is very pricey). Let's take a look inside.

Let's begin by seeing how the publisher describes the game:

Join the Mouse Guard and defend the Mouse Territories against predators and dangers, in this roleplaying game for the acclaimed Mouse Guard comic book series! Players form their own Mouse Guard patrol and attempt to complete missions while the Game Master takes on the roles of the weather, animals and the wilderness all trying to thwart the fearless mice.

What's Inside



Before opening up the box, let me talk about the box itself. It's a hefty, square shaped box (23cm x 23cm x 9.5cm thick), lavishly illustrated and of high quality construction. Lifting it, one immediately notices how heavy it is, largely because it's packed with material. Opening it, one finds:

a 320-page, full color, softcover rules book, a 44-page supplement with new missions and rules

3 action decks (1 for the GM, 2 for players) for scripting conflicts

a set of Condition cards used for tracking adverse conditions affecting characters

a set of cards detailing weapon stats

a pad of characters sheets

a pad of GM record sheets

a set of 10 custom dice

a GM's reference screen

5 colorful, plastic mouse tokens (which resemble those shown in the comic)

a map of the Mouse Territories

I'll discuss the extra materials first and it can be summed up in one word: awesome. All of the cards are printed on quality card stock and bear original artwork from David Petersen - the action cards are a great addition to the game and make scripting conflicts quick to do and easy to learn. The dice have a really nice feel to them and are solid - these aren't cheap, super light plastic - landing with a solid "thunk" when they hit the table. The mouse pawns, which I initially thought were going to be kind of dumb, are very nice and bring about a certain amount of immersion to the game for anyone who is a fan of the comic because they closely resemble the tokens Gwendolyn pushes around her map of the territories. The character sheets are incredibly well designed and include all of the critical rules players need to know right on the sheet. They're also square, matching the rest of the box set's trade dress as well as the comic's format. It also has to be pointed out that you get a thick pad of these sheets - not simply a couple to get you started. Simply put, all the accessories really do make the box set "deluxe" and are well-worth the additional cost.

Turning to the rule book, it too clearly is both a labor of love and attention to detail. It is easily the most beautiful RPG I have ever laid eyes on - like the original hardback version of the book, the Mouse Guard rulebook outdoes even the largest RPG publisher's books. That's fact, not opinion. The book is printed on heavy, glossy paper and filled from start to finish with lavish, full-color illustrations. The layout, the fonts, and the cover all convey a powerful sense of aesthetics. Incidentally, the book's dimensions are square which makes it a bit unusual to place on a shelf, but it's done for a specific reason: the book exactly matches the comic and graphic novels' dimensions, fitting perfectly next to them on a shelf.

The Game Itself

Okay, so the box and book are beautiful. How is the game? At the risk of jumping straight to the punchline: wow, is the game good. The book is very well-written and manages to explain how to play the game, in very simple terms so that those new to roleplaying games can understand and yet, as someone who owns dozens of RPGs, I never felt that things were being over-simplified and it was an easy and enjoyable read from start to finish. The book starts with a basic explanation of what roleplaying is and the basic mechanics of the game before jumping right into character creation and the resolution system. Next is an explanation of the structure of sessions, followed by a description of the Territories and their Denizens. The book then finishes up by detailing abilities, skills, traits, and how to create missions and your own characters.

So what makes this game special? Let's start with the basic mechanics. Mouse Guard (MG) is built on the same basic, well-tested mechanics as those used in Burning Wheel and Burning Empires, but is a much more refined and streamlined system. Some would call it a "lite" version of Burning Wheel (BW) but I would take exception to that term since it suggests that MG is somehow a cheaper or dumber version of BW which it is not. Instead MG trims away the unnecessary parts of BW and hones other mechanics to much more tightly capture the feel and style of the MG comics. Whereas BW is meant to be a workman's fantasy RPG which the group uses to "burn up" their setting, MG is instead designed to do one particular setting really well.

The basic mechanics of MG are based around dice pools (typically ranging in size from 3 to 8 dice) using six-sided dice. A 4+ is considered a success on a die and all that's required is to roll your dice and count the number of successes – the set's custom dice use snakes to represent 1-3, swords to represent a 4-5, and an axe to represent a 6 which is even easier to process, especially for children.

The system also differentiates between two levels of resolution: Tests and Conflicts. Tests are simple, single roll task resolution in which the number of successes is compared either to a target number based on the difficult of the task Ob (in MG terms, the obstacle's difficulty or "Ob" of the task), or to an opposing character's number of successes. The number of success beyond the Ob, or over your opponent's number, determines the margin of success. It's a very intuitive and elegant system that handles situations like untrained skills and teamwork in a very satisfying way.

Conflicts introduce another level of complexity and depth to the system in which the characters involved script their actions, consult a 4x4 table (attack vs. defense) to see how those actions interact, and then make an action test. It's a simplified version of the Fight! and Duel of Wits mechanics from Burning Wheel and having played both, I think it's a big improvement for the average gamer. MG captures the same feel and concept as BW in a much more streamlined way. What kinds of conflicts does the system handle? The short answer is "anything." The more detailed answer is that it can handle situations like arguments, chases, fights, negotiations, journeys, speeches, or even all-out war, all with the same basic mechanic and just a few rolls. Perhaps the most innovative part of the whole system is the way teamwork factors into a fight: patrol members divide actions between the team members in each turn, which means that conflicts involving 2 or more mice have a built-in team vibe to them where each member contributes to the action of each exchange. This approach also captures the style of the comic very well: one patrol member might act to distract an enemy while another strikes from a flank, with the two actions working together in a synergistic way that allows the small, physically limited mice to deal with a much larger foe. The only trick is that players need to learn to actively work as a team, something that may take a couple of conflicts to get the hang of, but within a session or two everyone I've ever played the game with gets it. For those of you who have read the comics, you should recognize that this closely resembles the action in the story - the patrol works as a team to defeat its enemies (e.g., the battle with the snake in the Fall 1152 series).

Similarly, damage in the setting is handled by assigning Conditions to a guardmouse: Healthy, Hungry & Thirsty, Angry, Tired, Injured, or Sick. Each of these conditions comes with a very tangible game effect and multiple conditions stack so over the course of a mission a mouse may take quite a beating. Conditions create a very simple, descriptive system for modeling damage and stress that characters can use to easily gauge and roleplay their character's physical and mental status. I really like the system and find it very easy to work with. Of course it's not highly lethal but the game isn't really about representing grievous, bleeding, head wounds but that's fine with me since it fits the genre and style of the comic well. Death is still possible; it's just that the system doesn't model seven levels of wounding.

I really love the mechanics because they are simple but very flexible. They also create play sessions that match the pacing, feel, and style of the comic book which inspired the game. That's really cool. In addition, the way characters are defined also help to create very clear, evocative characters whose past, present, and future (in terms of goals) are laid out during character creation. Part of this process includes defining three core pieces of every character:

Beliefs - a personal code, ethical stance, or guiding principle Instincts - gut reaction, ingrained training, or automatic behaviors of the character Traits - the personality quirks and special qualities of the character

These three pieces of information, coupled with the rest of the character generation (in which a character's important relationships, past training, and skills are defined) really help to create unique and very flavorful characters. The character generation system, which is formally detailed in the last chapter of the book, is very intuitive, so much so that even brand new roleplayers I've introduced to the game have been able to create very colorful, story-rich characters. The process is laid in a clear, step-by-step manner which is easy to follow and fun to complete as a group (the game explicitly states that character generation should be a group process). This approach guarantees the group forms a coherent and balanced patrol, and also helps flesh out the intra-group relationships right from the start. In all of the MG games I've run, the group's dynamics emerge during this process and typically players are able to jump right into character from the very start of play.

Each Mouse Guard session has a specific structure. Each session typically covers one mission in which the patrol (the group) is assigned a specific task to accomplish. For example, a mission might be find out what happened to a merchant that went missing on the road to Sprucetuck. The task is short and to the point, even if the twists and turns of the events that later take place don't turn out to be. Once the mission is assigned, each player chooses a unique, personal Goal. This helps to define a specific accomplishment or deed the character needs to complete. As a GM, these goals are incredibly useful since they tell you exactly what the player wants to experience in the session. Thus, if someone writes "Prove myself as a tracker to the patrol's leader" a GM knows the session should include a situation where that mouse's tracking skill is called upon. A clever GM will take these and use them as inspiration for scenes or situations. For example, I might decide that the merchant that disappeared had wandered off the path and thus the patrol will need to use their tracking skills to find him. The Mission chapter contains a ton of valuable advice for the GM on how to construct a mission, what kinds of obstacles are appropriate, and how the seasons impact the mission.

Once the mission has been assigned, the GM's Turn begins. Essentially, this is structured much like any other traditional RPG where the GM defines scenes and obstacles to challenge the patrol. Challenges typically come in the form of weather, nature (as in the wilderness), animals, or other mice. Here is where the meat of the roleplaying and active conflicts take place. The GM simply springboards off of the group's successes and especially failures, creating twists and developments in the story and helping push the mice to their limits.

Once the GM's Turn is over, the Players' Turn begins. Here the game becomes a bit more "indie" in that players now get the opportunity to contribute to the narrative development of the story by defining specific events, scenes, or checks they want to see to wrap up the story. Typically the Players' Turn will involve the recovery from stress, re-equiping themselves, building relationships with NPCs, and furthering personal story arcs.

The end of the session then involves a ritualized procedure in which rewards are given out for characters who met their Goal, as well as involved their Beliefs and/or Instincts in the session's play. This reward procedure actively involves the whole table, both the players and the GM, in determining who deserves special recognition and who doesn't. This is one of my favorite parts since it involves the whole group rather leaving the decision solely up to the game master - as a GM, often events or play that I thought was pretty run-of-the-mill turn out to be really powerful or significant in the eyes of the other players and thus involving them in making these decisions is only natural.

The types of missions, as well as the obstacles experienced during them, are shaped by the Season, and the rule book spends a considerable number of pages explaining how the seasons shape the lives and duties of the guardmice, as well as the mouse territories in general. Aside from providing interesting facts and details about the setting, the chapter also helps provide guidance to the GM about what types of missions and weather-related obstacles are appropriate for the chosen season.

The chapters that follow provide an overview of the mouse Territories, including the major settlements, along with the inhabitants found in the territories. Only two sentient races exist in the game: mice and weasels (and related species like ferrets and martens). Weasels are much more physically powerful than mice, although the way the game defines characters means that a patrol stands a decent chance of defeating one if they work together. Wild animals represent most of the "monsters" within the game and these range from bears to snakes. Perhaps the most interesting bit about mice fighting larger animals is that the game explicitly defines what a patrol can and cannot actually kill - mice, being small and frail, can take on animals that are marginally bigger than themselves (e.g., a snake or weasel) but cannot seriously threaten a large animal like a badger or a wolf, at least in normal combat. Instead mice must resort to science or large scale, military action (i.e., they must wage war on it) to take on a big foe. This to me is a fantastic feature because it creates a situation where PCs can't simply take anything on head-to-head but instead must find alternative methods, creating tons of situations for interesting roleplaying and conflict situations.

The book is rounded out by extensive descriptions of the skills and traits available to characters, as well as a set of sample missions which illustrate different types of missions. Each of these missions is accompanied by four pre-generated characters so that players can jump right into the action. In fact, the first sample mission is a recreation of the events that take place during the Fall 1152 in which three guardmice set out to find a missing grain peddler. I've run a couple of the sample missions and would recommend anyone new to the game do the same since they provide a good overview of how to structure a mission and how the characters' abilities interact with the mission's obstacles. It's also quite interesting how what appears to be a simply mission can develop in to a fully developed story - I've had a few rather amazing story lines develop from the "Grain Peddler" mission, none of which resembled each other at all once we moved beyond the initial mission's set-up. The last chapter, as mentioned earlier, is a detailed explanation of character generation and is perhaps the best written chapter in the entire book.

That is the game in a nutshell. While the game can seem somewhat complicated at first glance, all of the elements fit together logically and the result is a game that's quite easy to learn but which is deep enough to satisfy even seasoned story gamers.

New Missions & New Rules

Aside from the core rulebook, which is identical to the older, hardback version, the box set also comes with a 44-page, saddle-stapled book that contains a selection of supplemental material. These include rules for "weapons" to be used in non-combat conflicts like supplies for a Journey, Flashing Coin for a negotiation, and camouflage for fighting animals. The game also includes rules for mounts, including hares which made an appearance in the Winter 1152 series. The book also details three more locations within the Mouse Territories, providing both game "stats" as well as a variety of story hooks. The largest portion of the book includes three new missions along with suitable pre-generated characters. Much like the original MG RPG book's inclusion of a mission based upon the Fall 1152 series, the first new mission - Mission of Mercy - is based upon the events at the start of the Winter 1152 series. The other two missions are equally interesting - one involves dealing with a beaver dam that is threatening to flood a village and the other the maintenance of the scent border - with either capable of serving as the kicking off point for a series of adventures. The book concludes with an explanation of the new materials (i.e., the rest of the box's contents) and how best to use them.

The Verdict

The Mouse Guard Box Set takes what was easily one of the best roleplaying games made and builds upon it to create a fantastic product. Rich and detailed enough for even the most seasoned roleplaying fanatic, the game still manages to be very approachable for someone completely new to roleplaying. The game's layout and style work equally well for either group and I would not hesitate to recommend the set for someone wanting to get into the hobby.

For those unfamiliar with the comics, do not be fooled by the subject matter: while the story involves playing anthropomorphic mice, it is neither cute nor childish - Petersen's world is one of danger and grim threats in which the weak struggle against the very forces of nature to survive. As such it's a perfect world for adult players to explore - the fact that you're playing mice makes it, in my opinion, all the more interesting because the external threats are apparent (e.g., a fox is a very clear threat to mice) and awe inspiring when one opens their imagination to the realities of being a mouse (e.g., a black bear is the equivalent of Godzilla to a village of mice). In a hobby where many games revolve around the heroes mopping the floor with dragons, it's refreshing to approach things from a different perspective. while it sounds kind of goofy to play mice, all it takes is a look at the illustrations and most people lose those fears. If you're a fan of the Mouse Guard comics, or liked the Redwall books, the Mouse Guard RPG is definitely for you. However, I would go out on a limb and say that most people will like this game if the theme and subject is of any interest to them.

That said, Mouse Guard works equally well with kids - the tone and nature of the game can easily be adapted to younger sensibilities and the nature of the challenges (e.g., dealing with a beaver's dam) are something even younger children can wrap their heads around. For example, the Redwall novels could be used as the basis for a game, although I think the Mouse Guard comics themselves are a perfect introduction to the gaming world even for younger kids - while the story is somewhat grim in tone, there's nothing overly gratuitous or violent about them and the main protagonists are heroic do-gooders. Likewise, the mechanics of the game are also easy for children to learn, made even more so when you use the custom dice included in the box set, and the characters themselves are made with a minimal amount of math or extensive writing. I have played the game with children as young as eight (my own son) without any issues whatsoever in terms of the rules or mechanics, and I consider it one of the best games available for teaching roleplaying to kids since it offers a variety of ways to solve problems (versus the typical emphasis on killing adversaries) and its default set-up is based upon an altruistic group working for the betterment of the community rather than self-serving adventurers out to win fame and fortune.

In the end it's hard not to gush over the Mouse Guard Box Set. Having been actively involved in the hobby for over a quarter century I've owned a lot of games but this is without a doubt one of the very best.