Mouse Guard RPG
2nd EditionBest For
Groups who love the Mouse Guard comics and want a mission-driven RPG where brave mice face nature, weather, and predators: with Burning Wheel's belief-driven mechanics in a streamlined package.
Core Mechanic
Roll a pool of d6s equal to your ability or skill: each die showing 4+ counts as a success. Meet or exceed the obstacle number to pass. Conflicts (fights, arguments, chases, negotiations) use scripted actions and disposition. Beliefs, Instincts, and Goals drive advancement. Play alternates between GM's Turn (missions and obstacles) and Players' Turn (personal goals and recovery).
The d6 pool counts 4+ as successes against an obstacle. Its shape is the two-part session, a GM's Turn of challenges answered by a Players' Turn, with Beliefs, Goals, and Instincts earning rewards. Conditions, traits, and scripted conflicts add the rest.
- Free to tryNothing freeNo free rules or starter
- Get it nowSold newIn print or as a legal PDF
- ✓IndexFind any rule by page number
- ✓GM guidanceA chapter on how to run the game
- ✓Examples of playRules shown in action at the table
- ✓Quick referenceCheat sheet or summary tables
- –Cross-referencesRules rarely point to each other by page
4 of 5 book tools found in the core book
Highlights
Beliefs and Instincts mechanically drive play, versatile conflict system handles fights, debates, chases, and negotiations equally, streamlined Burning Wheel engine, well-integrated with the comics, included sample missions and 12 pre-made characters
Considerations
Tightly bound to the Mouse Guard setting, conflict scripting takes getting used to, limited character options, currently out of print
Rules license Proprietary
Similar systems
- Inevitable — Doomed cowboy knights defy prophecy in a dying kingdom's final daysCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs Inevitable
- The Whispering Vault — Immortal hunters pursue renegade spirits across history and mend wounds in realityCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs The Whispering Vault
- Candela Obscura — Occult investigators confronting supernatural horrors in a turn-of-the-century worldCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs Candela Obscura
- Blades in the Dark — Daring heists in a haunted industrial-fantasy cityCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs Blades in the Dark
- Spire: The City Must Fall — Dark elf operatives wage a shadow war against high elf rulers inside a crumbling, mile-high cityCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs Spire: The City Must Fall
- Armour Astir: Advent — High-fantasy mecha rebellion: strike back against the Authority in steel-clad AstirsCompare Mouse Guard RPG vs Armour Astir: Advent