Mausrítter - Blessed are the Cheesemakers

The new Turn Tracker in use...

While we were on holiday, I'd floated the idea of running a roleplaying game with the lads, and got a really positive feedback from them, especially from the 11 year-old. He liked the idea of 'the mouse game', which I'd floated past him previously. This was, of course, Mausrítter, a game which is perfect for an introduction to gaming as the mechanics are simple, it has anthropomorphic mice and creatures and the scenarios don't drop a heavy load of the GM.

The view across from the GM. 

We decided to take advantage of an overcast day to play outside; fortunately, I have two dice towers which meant that the dice were saved from disappearing under the decking. It was a little it gusty so they decided to weight down their sheets. Well, the eldest (15) did, and the youngster followed when everything tried to blow away.  

One of the cats joined in.

I was joined by one of our cats, Rebel, who wanted to see what was going on, perhaps recognising the word 'mouse'. I opted to use the Stumpsville scenario from the core rules. I've previously run the other scenario, 'Honey in the Rafters', for my Curse of Strahd group during downtime and fancied something different. I also know that the Earldom of Ek setting nicely links across to the new material for 'The Estate', which I've recently received.

The eldest's two mice

As Mausrítter can be brutal on mice, the boys each created two mice. The eldest had a former prison guard (Else Winterholme) and her cousin August Winterholme, a troubadour. Nat instantly started to refer to him as 'the Bard'. His watching of the Witcher was coming to the front I think.

 

The younger pair

The youngster's two characters were Edmund Butterball, a former worm-wrangler, and his friend Rue Seedfall. She was the practical one, working on the rafts on the stream near Oaksgrove.

Play started at the settlement of Stumpsville, where our four heroes had arrived to try and find out what had happened to the weekly cheese shipment that was due for the market at Oaksgrove. It had taken then most of the day to travel the two miles (hexes) to the distant village and they arrived around 4pm in the afternoon.

Of course there was wrestling.

They explored the settlement, setting off one trap, avoiding another, and killing two wolf spiders who had captured two of the townsfolk who were hiding from a dangerous rat gang. We ended the game with them having tied up a rat they'd found in a cheese-coma in the factory stores and placed in the cage that the town's guard snake was. They were having a whispered conversation with him to find out what had happened and where the people of Stumpsville were, relying on the fact that they had a flute and a flautist and could hopefully charm the snake to avoid it waking and eating the rat.

They've asked to play again.

Mausrítter worked like a dream. The tactile method for inventory was good, and the boys really got into it. The eldest was pretty confident and his drama lessons in English GCSE helped him get into the two different characters. The youngster wanted to think things out and hedged his bets on declaring which mouse did what initially, but again, that's very him. I suspect that - at heart - he's more of the gamer though. 

I think we reconvene on Saturday.

30 August 2022