I started mulling over this post yesterday, and I honestly wish I had gotten it up then because it dovetails pretty nicely with day two of RPG a Day. For those unfamiliar, the #RPGaDay hashtag posts a different discussion topic everyday during the month of August for us roleplaying nuts to come together and talk about. Yesterday's topic was "Best game session since August 2015?" So I'll call it close enough and post a day late.
Interestingly enough, last week's session for my Mouse Guard campaign was completely accidentally one of the best single sessions that the group has had to this point. This same group just came off probably our best campaign stretch where they helped a group of female outcasts from Grasslake set up their own community, which I've posted a bit about before. This ended up culminating with the patrol meeting up and forming a relationship with a civilization of moles that exists in the Wilds east of the Territories, and then fending off an army of weasels lead by a sable warlord. Needless to say, it set some pretty high expectations for the following year in-game.
This year I've set up something slightly different. Coming off a merchant escort run in early spring, the patrol needed to clear the northern shores of crabs that were causing shipwrecks and shutting down trade routes. However, during this adventure the patrol found that one of the wrecked ships had been carrying a suspicious shipment of weapons. Following sessions saw them take the investigation east to the port cities where the ships had come from, and followed the trail back west to where the weapons were headed. Turns out that the weapons shipment was being funneled to help fuel a long-overdue rebellion in Elmoss, where things had gotten so dire that the merchant leaders had begun gleaning wages off of the citizens to keep things afloat. Somewhat unsurprisingly given the patrol's history by this point, my players jumped in on aiding the rebellion rather than trying to shut it down.
This is where it's gotten interesting, though, and the Big Moment that I honestly did not realize was the Big Moment when I did the prep. The leader of the Elmoss rebellion, a young but hardened leader of a lass, didn't fully trust the patrol's intentions and was hesitant to involve them further in the coup. She therefore (following a failed Persuasion test to convince her they were on the up and up) gave them a mission to help prove themselves: coming from Copperwood was a shipment of food and supplies to act as relief to the mice of Elmoss. The patrol needed to ensure that shipment never reached Elmoss in order to keep the citizens hungry for change, both literally and figuratively.
When I originally designed the mission, I had assumed that this would be a covered by a test or two during the Player's Turn - it was a possibly twist, and I honestly didn't even consider this as being something that needed to be addressed during the GM Turn. I was shocked when this revelation completely halted the game (in a good way). As their table chatter went on though, I realized that this twist managed to hit on each of their Beliefs in some way or another. For reference, the group's Beliefs are as follows:
- Never back down, never give up.
- The needs of the many outweigh those of the few.
- Always work to better myself and others.
The logic behind the rebellion leader's giving them this task is very important to understanding why this became such an internal struggle for the patrol. In the 1E canon, Elmoss' government was originally set up when the city was a thriving supply hub for the western Territories. However, once many of those towns began falling during the Weasel War, Elmoss began to fall in power and influence. The government, though, made up of the heads of each trade practiced in the city, remained the same, and became a huge burden to the citizens of the town. In the rebellion leader's mind, this rebellion had been coming for far too long, and now that she had the citizens ready to pull it off, the relief supplies would cool their heads and the coup would miss its window.
The first mouse (the patrol leader) understood this logic right away, and knew the danger - these mice were finally on the door of real change, and something like this might turn them away from their goal. The second part of his Belief really shown here, not wanting to see the rebellion in any danger of falling apart, even if it meant he needed to do something questionable and that mice might suffer for it. The second mouse and third mice were the ones that really were struggling with what was going on. For the second mouse who strives to work for the greater good, who represents the few? Is the need for rebellion among the Elmoss mice forcing permanent change greater than the need for them to feed their families? Is providing food really buying time and avoiding danger for an small oppressive elite? Similarly, the mouse looking to make herself and others better had quite the quandary on her paws. Is the betterment of the Elmoss mice really with overthrowing their antiquated government in a bloody coup? Can she honestly view herself as taking the steps towards her goal of bettering herself by denying starving mice food?
Ordinarily with this kind of conflict among the group, I would have moved this into an inter-patrol Argument Conflict to resolve it, but there was really one side and two questions. Two of the three were having such an internal debate over what was the right course of action that there didn't seem to be enough to combat against the one mouse who was game for sabotaging the shipment. They might get there on their own eventually. In the end, I at least got them to agree that we would address the shipment in the next session so we could finish out the rest of the mission, so it'll be interesting to see what the end result is and how they handle everything.
While the session itself was interesting enough, it was really this moment that stood out as one of the best I've had in my gaming history. I am slightly bothered that it came about so unintentionally, and that I didn't recognize ahead of time what the situation actually represented for the players, but such is a learning experience as a GM for a game like this. I am at the least very happy that I got to be a part of the moment.
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