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Being a sucker for any kind of boxed rpg, my eyes lit up when I saw
David Peterson’s post about the upcoming Mouse Guard boxed set. Hmm I thought, the wife likes cute little furry things. Maybe this would be the way to lure her into the hobby! Then of course my mind scurried in a number of different directions as I tried to think of all the possibilities.I knew wikipedia might be of assistance, so I searched there and found an entry entitled “List of furry role-playing games”… There’s a few in that list I’m already familiar with, among them Bunnies and Burrows of course.
There’s no way I’m spending money on a gamble like this idea though. Does anyone have any experience with these or others besides B&B?
I headed over to The Free RPG blog’s delicious list to see if I could find something easily but there aren’t any obvious tags to help. Over at RPGNet someone posted a list of furry rpgs and there I rediscovered Tales from the Wood which I remember seeing on 1KM1KT.net (you can still download it there). I started looking it over when my wife came into the room and I asked if she’d be willing to play a role-playing game where should could be a hedgehog in a woods. She said “Sure!” but then seemed to back off a little and said, “I dunno, maybe. I’d try it I guess.” I swear, sometimes I think she’s just leading me on.
I’m not even sure I know how to go about playing such a game but what the hell, I’ll try to give it a shot one of these days. At least I’ve got some paper miniatures in case I need 'em.
10 comments:
Mouse Guard is a fascinating role-playing game, but I agree in that I'd be very hesitant to lay out the money if it wasn't going to be played an awful lot. Could you so take a look as, say, a Brian Jacques novel like Redwall or Martin the Warrior and use D&D rules to emulate that style of play?
Tunnels & Trolls was the first game to get my fiance's attention. Just one type of die (d6). I GM'ed a solo adventure for her, she had a really good time. You can get the abridged rules for free at rpgnow.com.
Something else not on either of those furry rpg lists is Squirrel Attack. It's on RPGnow for cheap. I bought it to possibly play with my kids - though I haven't yet. It's got cool supplements too!. How can you not like "Shaolin Squirrels: Nuts of Fury" or "Squirrels Ahoy: Squirrels of the Spanish Main"
I wish I could help you. My wife was an on-again/off-again LARPer when we met and I tried to get her involved in the tabletop game. She stuck around for a while and had some memorable adventures. Ultimately, she just didn't like sitting around a table rolling dice. She wanted to be up-and-about, dressing up and acting in character.
I had pretty good luck running a 'Mouse Guard' style game using Risus. It was the story of an all mouse troupe whose village was beset by uncharacteristic flooding during the dry season. The village shaman, a chinchilla, sent the party on the for the 'Cat's Eye Stone'. They traveled down stream to a waterfall that they had to negotiate. At the bottom they ran into a large lizard which they hid from... fun stuff. The stone had nothing to do with a cat, though they ran into one in the farmer's house. They found the stone (a cat's eye marble) and returned it to the village where they were told to put it into the ocean at the top of the iron mountain. Players actually enjoyed discovering that this was a watering trough for the cattle nearby, that had sprung a leak. The marble sunk and plugged the whole... sounds boring, but it was quite fun from the perspectives of mice.
I mention all this to say, after that, I bought the real Mouse Guard game. Though REALLY cool, it is not your A-typical RPG and takes some getting used to. A novice might grasp it faster than I, but it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the Burning Wheel rules set. I have since saved the actual rules for older groups of players and go straight to Risus for a lighter/free romp. It works great when you consider settings as the enemy: Waterfall (Rushing Water 4, Perilous Drop 3, Loose Rock 2, Razor Sharp Saw Grass 1)
Just throwing out my $.02
The Bane
Mouse Guard is almost an elitist intellectual game; but it's too nice for that. It's BEAUTIFUL, but not straight ahead and not exactly Redwall either. It's a thing of its own.
I have a copy of Squirrel Attack I will gladly(!) give away if you are so interested.
My friends who've played Mouse Guard really loved it. I've picked up the rulebook but haven't read it all yet. I really do like how the mechanic really drives roleplaying. Also got a kick out of how you can have as much equipment as you can physically write in the equipment square. So no big bubble letters that say "rope".
I don't think "furry" when I think mouse Guard. That, furries... is something very different. I've not played Mouse Guard (and I'll have you know I've never played "furries" either - stop looking at me like that) but i know the people who put the game together than they are Righteous Dudes. I would be willing to try it some time. Try Mouse Guard, I mean.
@Christian: I suppose I could use something like S&W:WB for something like this, but honestly after the last investment in time and energy I’m too lazy even to convert it a bit and write up new races etc. To be honest, I’m kind of interested in playing a slightly different game too, since I already DM a S&W game. Mouse Guard looks great and the mice, er dice attracted me based on their simplicity, but again there’s the cost and investment in rules reading time.
@Tenkar: That T&T box has me drooling a little. I like the d6 only too. I might buy it anyway but I’m inclined toward a fuzzier rpg for her, if only to explore my hunch that it might be a gateway drug for her.
@Koren & Loquacious: Thanks for the heads up about Squirrel Attack and the offer, I’m going look into that and might take you up on the offer Loq - maybe I can barter you something.
@ Risus: Yeah, you might be right about her just not wanting to sit at a tabletop game. I dunno though, she really digs scrabble and card games. If this doesn’t work, I might go the card route next with Munchkin or something.
Thanks for all your thoughts on the subject. Of course I’ll post an update if anything develops..
Women in gaming ?
follow the link . . .
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/acksep97.html
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