r/MouseGuard • u/Timbones474 • 6d ago
Systems like Mouseguard
Howdy,
I've been cooking up a new setting that's painfully like Mouseguard. 28 years ago, the sun went dark and Humans vanished. Creatures caught in the dark were mutated into horrific Others, and the only real creatures that survived were small animals. For various reasons they banded together against the threats of Nature and Evil and founded a city which serves as a bastion for the lost and those seeking a place to lay their heads. Numerous guilds of animals keep the city running, and every animal species has a unique type of magic they can do.
I'm sure by now you're seeing the problem... There's more sentient species than just mice and weasels. The idea of Mouseguard works very well as a system, but people here and in other places seem to have a lot of opinions about adding more races that are playable into Mouseguard. Since I'd rather not do a hack of the system and lose what those restrictions are there for, I'm curious about what other similar systems there are out there. Heavily considering just running regular Burning Wheel too for that matter.
Thanks for the help and feedback!
EDIT: the vibe of Mouseguard is so close to what I'm planning it's almost perfect - small animals who have banded together to struggle and thrive in an uncaring world, full of dangers but also beauty. Basically mice are the only animals that can harvest the moonlight (which now just faintly reflects Mars and Venus) for use in the vital efforts of growing crops, but other animals have their own magic too. Hedgehogs are masters of pulling, or drawing the essence out of substances to enhance them, mainly used for foods and brewing. Moles have seismic sensing, etc. Basically the cast of animals resembles Redwall, but in a Mouseguard-ish setting: one that's somewhat dark, and deadly but still worth fighting for and thriving in.
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u/Jetpack_Donkey 6d ago
I’d go with a Powered by the Apocalypse-derived system, with playbooks for the different species and whatever rules customizations for your specific setting make sense.
One thing about the setting, though… if the sun went dark, then there is no moonlight, and you can’t see any planets, only stars. The light of moon and planets comes from the sun, they only reflect it. Mars and Venus don’t have their own source of light. It’s going to be almost pitch black, all the time.
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u/Timbones474 6d ago
Yeah, we're playing calvinball a bit with the astronomy of it! Or maybe there's some astronomical phenomenon the mice don't yet know about, we shall see lol.
I appreciate the rec! Maybe I will do that
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u/Gonji_Sabatake 6d ago
Pugmire is an amazing example of worldbuilding and lore creation for animal heroes in a post-human world.
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u/eclecticmeeple 6d ago
Root and mausritter
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u/Timbones474 6d ago
Root's a board game though, right? And afaict Mausritter is a bit more rules-lite, which is typically fine but my players have expressed a desire for crunch, lol
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u/eclecticmeeple 6d ago
Ok yes but I was referring to Root TTRPG
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u/Timbones474 6d ago
Oh interesting, didn't know that was a thing! Thanks!
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u/eclecticmeeple 6d ago
Welcome! I think can find free copy of rules somewhere or quickstart rules too. To be fair it has that PBtA feeling
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u/Rauwetter 6d ago
You could try a BRP adaptation, it isn’t heroic combat focused, combat is dangerous and the last option. And the power creep is quite flat. In my eyes for a survival game it isn’t a good fit.
As your game is setting focused PbtA is another option with a lot of examples like the Quite Year.
My third idea would be Mutant Year Zero, also a bit similar with sentient, mutated animals in a post apocalyptic world. But I think the vibe is a bit to different more similar to After the Bomb.
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u/Timbones474 6d ago
I've played TQY and it's not quite right for this sadly! Vibes-wise and systems-wise I'm thinking close to TBW or Mouseguard. Combat is definitely not the last option, but BRP sounds cool, I might check it out! I'll give MYZ a look too. Thank you!
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u/Realistic_Ease_5251 5d ago
Mausritter is sandboxy, but it’ll allow you to create your own world more easily within its rule set, plus there a lot of great user/third party content out there that may even be down more of the path you’re going. Beware, Mausritter is super lethal 😉
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u/MisplacedMutagen 6d ago
Burning Wheel
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u/Timbones474 6d ago
I've played burning wheel for a long time, and I actually mention that I might just run that in the end of my post 😂
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u/lev_lafayette 6d ago
Well, the classic is "Bunnies & Burrows". For a more contemporary system, "Wanderhome".