<span class="bbc_u">Mouse Nature</span><br/>All animals in MG act according to their Nature, including mice. Nature stands for the mouse's natural qualities and tendencies. It represents what he was born to do, and what helps him survive in the wild and cruel world. The Nature ability is unique among all the other abilities. While it has a rating like other abilities and skills, it also notes the animal to which it belongs and includes three or four descriptions.<br/><br/>Nature is rated from 0 to 7. The higher your Nature rank, the more mouse-like you are. The lower your rank, the more "human" you are. For mice, there are four aspects to Nature:<em>Escaping, Climbing, Hiding</em>and<em>Foraging</em>. These describe the situations in which you can use your Nature without penalty. If you use your Nature in situations outside of escaping, climbing, hiding and foraging, you risk losing a bit of it.<br/><br/>Nature is used in three different ways in the game:<ul class="bbc_list"><li type="disc">When action in the game involves escaping, climbing, hiding or foraging, you can roll your Nature instead of a Skill at no cost. It's very useful!</li><li type="disc">If your character is in a situation that is <em>against</em> his Nature--fighting, researching, arguing, etc.--and doesn't have the proper Skill, he may make the test using his Nature. However, if you fail to pass the test, your Nature is <em>taxed</em> by the margin of failure.<br/></li><li type="disc">Your character may tap their Nature to perform a heroic act. By spending a Persona Point, you may <em>add</em> your Nature rating to your ability or skill test. If you pass the test, and the act is within your Nature, there is no <em>tax</em>. If you pass the test and the act is outside your Nature, your Nature is <em>taxed</em> by 1. If you fail the test, your Nature is <em>taxed</em> by the margin of failure.</li></ul><span class="bbc_u">Taxing Nature</span><br/>Your Nature may become<em>taxed</em>by various circumstances listed above. When this happens, you write a slash next to your Nature ability, and list its new reduced value. Nature can be recovered by Depleting it, during a Winter Session, or by telling a story of the Patrol's adventures. Depletion involves permanently reducing your Nature by one, and recovering one point in the process. For example, if your Nature is 5, and currently Taxed to 3, you can Deplete your maximum to 4, and recover one point of tax at the same time to increase your Nature back to its new maximum of 4.<br/><br/>Remember, going to Nature 0 or Nature 7 causes your character to retire from the Mouse Guard.<br/><br/>All mice start with a base Nature of 3, which is modified by the answers to these questions:<br/>1.   Do you save for winter even if it means going without something now, or do you use what you have when you need it?<br/>2.   When confronted, do you stand your ground and fight, or do you run and hide?<br/>3.   Do you fear owls, weasels and wolves?<br/><br/>The answers to these questions will modify your Nature stat, and will also limit some other choices as we go on. Go ahead and post your answers to this questions in your response.<br/><br/>I've created a thread for us to post our Character Sheets (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=198739.0). This will help us keep track of everything more easily as we create our characters together. You can just copy mine and post is as your own with the necessary changes within the thread; that way you'll be able to upkeep it yourself.