<strong>Table Talk</strong><br/><br/>Think of the Mouse Guard RPG as a story we are all telling together a little bit at a time. We all know all the characters: Baba, DeeDee, Lea, and Mawgwa, and we all take turns as storytellers, potentially using all four characters, where usually our own character is momentarily in the spotlight. This is one of the main concepts about how MG is played, especially here on a forum, and is a significant departure from the structure of most other tabletop RPGs.<br/><br/>We’ll primarily be using two threads in which to communicate with each other. This thread is used to form the skeleton of our story. We’ll communicate with each other here both in- and out-of-character. Imagine the four of us sitting around a table or a campfire playing the game...telling a story of four intrepid heroes. This thread will also be used to present rules, and to coordinate everyone with what’s currently going on in the game. Players can also ask questions about the rules here.<br/><br/>As the Patrol faces obstacles presented by the GM, as players we will want to talk out-of-character to decide on a plan of attack to overcome the obstacles. We may need to ask the GM to clarify something, or to propose an alternative plan of attack to conquer the obstacle than the GM originally proposed. We’ll need to talk to each other to determine what each character’s participatory role is in a given situation.<br/><br/>As part of our out-of-character discussions, and subsequent to them, we may need to post what our character is doing, or how they are helping, to overcome the current obstacle. This can be communicated either in character or out of character as you choose. Importantly though, you need to explain how your character is acting or helping within the situation. For example, if you say your character will provide Help on a Skill Test, but are unable to explain how, then your character won’t actually help. The same goes for using Traits and Wises: if you want to use them, you need to convince the table as a whole how they are appropriate or how they apply. In short, the limitations of your character’s actions are only limited by your own creativity and persuasiveness.<br/><br/>All those discussions go on here in this thread. Thus, this will be the more active of the two main threads.<br/><br/>The other thread is used to add the flesh of the story to the skeleton we’ve developed here. While we discuss the skeleton as a group, when it’s time to add the flesh, one player writes for the whole group. How do we decide that? It’s pretty simple. One of the core rules of MG is that the player who makes the suggestion of action eventually decided upon by the group makes the roll for the Test, regardless of their character’s ability to pass the Test. That player also writes the narrative post that tells the story of how the Patrol faced the obstacle and what happened. Again, this is an opportunity to flex your creative storytelling muscles, developing the story around a few skeletal facts created here.<br/><br/>I am going to suggest that you color your text in this thread when you are in character, or your character is saying something, based on the cloak color of your mouse. You don’t need to do this in the narrative thread if you don’t want to, and I’m not going to make it mandatory here, either. It’s just a suggestion to easily visually identify who is doing what, or to ask a specific player something using their text color in order to get their attention. It’s just another organization tool that you can use at your own option.<br/><br/>DeeDee – indigo<br/>Baba – darkgreen<br/>Lea – darkorange<br/>Mawgwa – royalblue<br/><br/><strong>Starting the Story</strong><br/><br/>Our campaign will start in the Fall of 1153. This means the Patrol will be nearing the end of its deployment, and will soon be returning to Lockhaven for Winter. It means the characters have already been on the road together through Spring and Summer, and have been actively pursuing their duties over that time, getting in and out of scrapes along the way. If you want to include anything that has happened prior to the start of our game in your own writing, feel free to do so. If you’re not sure what would make sense, ask me (and the others!) about it either here in this thread, via PM, or via IM.<br/><br/>To start the game proper, I’ll be writing an opening introducing us to the Patrol, the season, setting, and some initial flavor of the MG world, and presenting the mission. Then, prior to starting the game in earnest with the GM turn, we’ll each take a turn writing a little narrative for our own character, introducing them more fully in our own personal style. There’s no set posting order, just post when you want to, and you may include the other characters in your post as well. To an extent, Godmoding is allowed in MG as long as it’s not abused, not embarrassing, and not against any of the character’s beliefs, instincts, or goals. Still, if a player asks you to change something their character is doing, please do so. I don’t really think this will be much of a problem.<br/><br/>After my first post, in addition to the introductory posts in the narrative thread, over here in this thread we’ll need to develop short-term Goals for our characters, the first step in the GM-turn/Player-turn cycle. I’ll be posting how we do that when we get there; that is, after I write the first post in the narrative thread.