Another week another small burst of progress with my two main projects. This post will be mostly focused on my NPCs for Goodnight Maus.
Let’s get to it.
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Goodnight Maus
(Mausritter adventure site inspired by the children’s book Goodnight Moon)
I have two mouse NPCs currently in place inside the Great Green Room. I’ve got Hamish Quickfoot, who is described in the adventure hook below:
The youngster Hamish Quickfoot has not been seen since he ventured off in search of fortune in the Great Green Room. His parents are offering a reward for anyone who can bring him home safely.
And I have a hermit inside the toyhouse who is dressed in the hide of a stuffed animal and wants to scare off intruders. He needs a name… Jerald Longfur… good enough (for now).
I’m going to be sparse on the details of these characters, employing the strategy used in the excellent The Estate collection from Mausritter creator Isaac Williams/Losing Games.
Here’s an example from The Estate’s The Chapel of Eternal Peace adventure site (by Diogo Nogueira).
Using that as a template, and the official character generator (link), I have made these:
Hamish Quickfoot
5hp, STR 9, DEX 12, WIL 10
Attacks: d8 bow
Wants: To return home with something valuable.
Jerald Longfur
4hp, STR 7, DEX 7, WIL 9
Attacks: d6 walking stick
Wants: To be left in peace. Failing that, a good meal.
My head-canon with Hamish is that he wants to help his parents’ pay off their debts. And the fact his parents are willing to pay a reward for his return demonstrates how much they care for him, in spite of their situation.
I don’t know how much of this should be shared in the adventure. I like the idea of leaving the breadcrumbs of my idea there, while also leaving everything open to broader possibilities for the GM and the players.
Jerald is a nuisance more than a threat. He’ll try scaring away adventurers, but will give up on his ruse if tested. Again, I need to decide how much of this info goes into the document. The good meal is a nod to the bowl of mush that will be on a table. I want to stash a spell in his toy house, too. The spell and valuables from within the house could be bartered for using mush.
I want a powerful spell in the room as a safety net for players, not so much from enemies, but from being stuck and not having avenues to explore all aspects of the room. I’m thinking a spell that stops time would be very useful and, given Mausritter’s spell recharge rules, it wouldn’t be game breaking to include it. Here’s how I see the spell functioning:
Stop Time
Effect: Time stands still for [SUM] + [DICE] minutes. The caster, along with anyone who was touching them when the spell was cast, is immune from the effect.
Recharge: Place the spell on a sundial for the entire day during the summer equinox.
The recharge will mean that this powerful spell is likely only repeatable if the party are involved in campaign play. If that was the case, this would be a fun side quest for the party during one of the two days of the year that the GM announces as the summer equinox/solstice. Perhaps you could do a game where you are defending the sun dial from others who would gladly take the spell out of your possession.
Steam Thieves
(Steampunk x Forged in the Dark, Ashcan here [link])
I had a win this week in that I read this …
… and did not decide to change the name of this project.
I think I hit the target with Steam Thieves and the Soaring Metropolis when it comes to the following sections of that rather interesting post:
Good titles are fun to say
Good titles set the scene
Good titles feel original
Good titles have a voice
The title is definitely not “sharp”, though. I wanted a long title, but also one that is easily truncated. I see this game being mostly referred to as “Steam Thieves”, just like we say “Blades” instead of Blades in the Dark. When you have a shorthand for something, it feels more personal.
Anyways… after finishing my Actions & Attributes section last week (that feels good to write), now I am on the Stress & Trauma section. Check out my first tweak in that section below. I’m not sure about the harm descriptors yet, but there is a whole section on those to come later. Also, I will be using the names of my regular gaming group in the examples throughout this thing.
Stress
Player characters in STATSM have a special reserve called stress. When they suffer a consequence that they don’t want to accept, they can take stress instead. The result of the resistance roll determines how much stress it costs to avoid a bad outcome.
During a dog fight, Mari’s character, Lidia, gets clubbed behind the ear by a flying copper. Mari rolls her Prowess rating to resist, and gets a 2. It costs 6 stress, minus 2 (the result of the resistance roll) to resist the consequences. Mari marks off 4 stress and describes how Lidia survives.
The GM rules that the harm is reduced by the resistance roll, but not avoided entirely. Lidia suffers level 2 harm (“Concussion”) instead of level 3 harm (“Knockout blow”).
That’s all I got. Thanks for keeping me on track all.