A Road Less Travelled

Since Gabrielle wrote a post about Mouse Guard…

I am now going to inflict on all of you a nifty thing I discovered about the game that most of you will really not care about.

So, in this game, I am playing the healer, Rosie. This is amusing, simply because I’m pretty much playing Gabrielle’s default character, who is far nicer than my default character. This is important, because of this one specific moment during the same fight Gabrielle wrote about. It’s nearing the end of the fight, we’re not doing so well, and I have a choice. I can take the ‘desperate last stand’ action and roll some dice that have a tiny chance of make the next round of fighting slightly less bad for us. Or, I can essentially throw this round instead of making the team effort, and gain two check marks, which represent my ability to do stuff when this mission is over.

I look at my sheet. My default character would totally make a desperate last stand right now. But Rosie? Sweet Rosie, whose Compassionate trait is about to mess up this fight for everyone in order gain the ability to do two things after the mission is over. So she looks at the raven we’re fighting, and for just those few seconds when she should be fighting, she feels sorry for the poor raven.

Fastforward to the end of the mission. Finn has stepped up and beaten the bird, we’ve successfully completed what we set out to do, and several of the party are sick or injured as a result. Getting better requires a successful roll, the greatest chance of success comes if the healer’s the one rolling, every roll requires a checkmark.

So… In the end, the only reason Rosie can actually help heal anyone–is because she also felt sorry for the raven.

I love this game.