Mausritter Solo Mousey Wizard Ep0

 I’ve had Mausritter by Losing Games on my shelf for a couple of years now. I am one of those people who liked to collect RPGs, but until I discovered solo play a few months ago, it mostly just sat there. I convinced my kids to play a few games with me, and we had a blast. But they just were not that into tabletop RPGs.

And so, I finally have a chance to play Mausritter again, and I am very excited! I will be using the One Page Solo Engine (OPSE) to facilitate the GM-less play. I’ll also be using a few alternate rules from other Mausritter materials as I go, but largely everything in this actual play will be from the core Mausritter material.

The largest exception to this is how I approach combat. In Mausritter, there is no “to hit” rolls, every attack does the prescribed dX damage. This is quite deadly in standard group Mausritter play, and since I am going to try to play as a single mouse (with occasional helpers perhaps), I want him/her to have an increased survivability. I found these alternate rules in a zine called Bernpyle #3 by ManaDawn.

Fun, right?! I have a general story idea I want to pursue at the beginning of this tale, but the largest part of this adventure will be driven by the dice rolls.

Mausritter utilizes an interesting token-based inventory that works really well physically, but I’m curious to see how it plays out in a blog format. Regardless, I’m excited to finally embark on this mousey adventure!

Before we do anything else, it’s time to create our mouse!

Bold text: mechanics
Italics text: Roleplaying
Plain text: Out of character explanation

Materials: Mausritter Core Book, OPSE, Bernpyle #3, Oak Mill Institute by MatthewSteakHam

Attributes:
3d6 for STR, DEX, WIL keep the 2 highest dice for each attribute
6, 10, 6 I’ll swap DEX and WIL, since I think I’ll be a wizardy mouse.

STR 6, DEX, 6, WIL 10

HP, Pips, Background

HP: d6= 6
Pips: d6=5
Background cross reference pips and HP on a table: Librarian! Perfect!

Starting Equipment:

Torches, Rations, background items (Scrap of obscure book, quill/ink), weapon d6 Sling

I’m going to say that instead of a scrap of an obscure book, we have an obscure stone tablet (magic spell that is unknown to us yet)

Details:

Birthsign: d6= 5 Moon : Wise/Mysterious
Coat: d6=6 Blue
Pattern: d6=3 Patchy
Physical detail: Unwashed clothes
Name: Anise Butterball

And so, we have our mouse! Anise Butterball sounds like a female name, so our mouse is a female. She is young, equivalent to late teen age in human years. She has come upon a mysterious stone tablet while working in the library. She has the unwashed clothes trait, and I’m going to say they are not unwashed, but rather ink stained especially around the sleeve cuffs from her writings. She has steel blue, patchy patterned fur. And of course, she is wise/mysterious! Perfect for my character. Sometimes the dice just fall exactly right!

So where are we? I’m going to use the standard campaign setting presented in the core book, The Earldom of Ek. The recommended starting town is Stumpsville. A hamlet of 50 mice, known for their excellent cheese, which is guarded by a large snake. A suggested starting plot hooks is that a gang of rats, Dedratz, is attacking/kidnapping mice from Stumpsville. We’ll incorporate that into our starting scene.

Now, we’ll set up our starting season and weather.

Season: 1d4= 4 Winter
Weather: 10 Overcast

Now that our stage is set, we’ll begin our story, and the first scene will begin in earnest in the next session.

Anise emerged from the dimness of the “Grand Hall” of Stumpsville, rubbing her nose absentmindedly, unaware of the ink smudge transferring from her paw to her nose. For a Grand Hall, it wasn’t much, but then Stumpsville was just a small hamlet. Much smaller than her home village of Oaksgrove [1]. She had come here on the rumor that they had some mysterious materials that needed study. She was not disappointed in the least. In her paw, she held a small stone tablet with strange runes carved thereupon. She idly traced the whorls of the runes as she walked out into the brisk winter air. The sky was overcast, and there was a certain sense of…waiting…in the air. She placed the stone tablet into her pack and removed her sling. She liked to idly spin it in a circle while she walked and thought.

She was eager to get back to Oaksgrove and begin studying on this tablet, but she knew first she would have to visit the mayor of Stumpsville and give him her regards. That kind of social dithering was not her style, but the master librarian [Mausritter names: 27,11] Iris Maker, reminded her constantly that a traveling scholar had to be careful to build bridges with the communities she studied in. She continued down the dirt path in the courtyard of this hollowed out stump these mice called home. She took note that the mayor’s house was a short climb up a ladder to a modest wall mounted house inset into the side of the stump.

She grabbed the first rung of the ladder, when she heard a commotion from the entry gate leading into the stump. There was a cry of pain, several loud cackles and shouts, and from the gate emerged a group of the dreaded DedRatz gang. [2d6=8] They were a motley group of rats armed with various weapons. The leader of the group had a bloodied mouse who had been watching the gate in front of him, prodding him with his rusty blade.

What are the rats here for: Oracle Action Focus: 7 Hearts = Create Connection

Sounds like to me the Dedratz have come to Stumpsville to “offer protection” to the village. Sounds like the only protection the village needs is FROM the Dedratz.

“See ‘ere. I reckon we gotta bit ov a problem, ladz. These ‘ere mouzes need ‘elp. I reckon us Dedratz are just wha’ these folks need.” The rat spoke in a thick accent, but was still easily understood. The other rats gave a chuckle, and the poor mouse that was the guard was cowering on the ground in front of them. “Iv the leadah of dis ‘ere village will come ou’ and speak wiv us, we will be ‘appy to go on our way.”

Does the mayor of the village come out from his house? Oracle Even odds: 2d6 = 1,2 No

Any other mice who had been in the courtyard, quickly scurried to their homes, and the mayor never emerged from his house either. Anise was frozen there at the ladder…one paw still on the first rung.

Do the rats see Anise? Oracle Likely odds: 2d6= 4,4 Yes

“’ere there, wee lass. Who da leadah of dis village?” While he spoke, several of the rats began to walk toward Anise. [d8= 8] The other rats followed suit, leaving the other mouse to scurry away through the gate. They all chuckled amongst themselves, hefting their weapons as they approached Anise in a casual amble.

What should Anise do? Run? Try to climb the ladder? There’s no way she can beat one of these rats, much less all 8. We’ll have to find out next session!