Army of Shadows campaign

[MadDrB]

After a run of regular Mouse Guard, my Tuesday night group felt ready to try the Army of Shadows hack by John Anderson. I've tweaked a few things, but John has already done a great job capturing the atmosphere of a game set in the Weasel Occupied Mouse Territories, 1941.

We started our first session of AoS with an attempt to combine character creation with a hint of roleplaying. I described a bit about Port Sumac, after the war, and then focused on how the characters arrived at Cafe Ophelia, just before curfew, one at a time; each one was led down to a secret room in the basement where they introduced themselves while sitting around a rough wooden table, beneath a bare lightbulb hanging from a wire.

One of the players hadn’t received the modified character sheet I had sent on Excel, and following along with the MG book confused him, mostly because of the changes in the skill list. But we got through to filling out the relationship map and creating NPCs, and that was the most collaborative part of the session, as I hoped it would be; each player created only 2 of his 4 contacts among Family, Friend, Enemy, and Mentor. I believe this is a key part of this campaign, and each contact has a box to track whether they know the PC is involved with the resistance. The more friends, enemies, and family know about a PCs nocturnal activities, the more likely the chance of betrayal and collaboration with Weasel occupation forces, not to mention a loss of Trust rating.

Here are the members of the cell, all of them post-war citizen recruits:
- Jean-Claude, an older, graying mouse who lost an eye in a bombing the previous year; he may be a double agent for the Weasels. Or not.
- Martin, a white mouse from Elmoss, a doctor.
- Henri, a brown mouse from the country who loves his cheese, now unemployed in the city and resentful of the Weasels destroying his farm.
- Olsen, a brown mouse in blue overalls, a member of both the international Mouxist group and the electrician’s union; he wears thick eyeglasses and tinkers with explosives.

And significant NPCs:
- Eloise: Olsen’s common-law wife (also his sister-in-law, before his wife died), and Jean-Claude’s enemy.
- Yulon the Newt: a merchant in Port Sumac who is everyone’s friend (almost), but he has crossed Olsen in a manner know one yet knows.
- Eugenie: Martin’s sister & a member of the resistance, also Olsen’s recruiter & mentor.
- Patrick: Jean-Claude’s brother, Martin’s mentor, and Henri’s enemy.
- Father Antoine: Martin’s enemy & Henri’s brother.

We still have a few more NPCs to complete before the next game, but I believe we have a good start with some dynamic relationships among the PCs and their contacts.

We concluded with Sean, the mouse trained in the Northern Isles, walking into the room and introducing himself, explaining that all of these new recruits were now part of this new resistance cell, and they were about to commence their first mission together.

You can find more information about John's work here: http://burningplay.wordpress.com/cat...my-of-shadows/

[Z-Dog]

Ken here, playing Olsen: Eloise, my 'common law' wife spends waaay too much time down at the Weasel Officer club, trying to find a rich hubby to marry as she dances the night away, the betraying tramp. I'm planning on persuading her to sing a little happy birthday son to the town commander while La Resistance presents him with large cake made with TNT.

Also: we need to get in some train-wrecking.

[Scott]

Scott here, Martin's player.

Train wreckin? Makes me think that trains need coal, which makes me think of mice mining coal.. which makes me picture mice in hard hats and helmet lamps. Why is that such an awesome thought?

[MadDrB]

Here's how I see Trust working in the game:

HELPING
Anytime you want your PC to help another PC, you can invoke your Trust to add 1 helping die, just as if you had a Trait or relevant Skill. If the helped PC then fails the roll, you lose 1 point of Trust.

QUESTIONING
Any time the Weasels pick up an NPC associate (Friend, Family, Enemy, Mentor, etc.), then each PC which is known by that NPC to be involved with the Resistance must test against Trust according to the obstacle of the questioning:

1. NPC stops by the Special Police station for questioning. Ob 2.
2. NPC taken into custody by Special Police for Interrogation. Ob 3.
3. NPC arrested & likely tortured. Ob 4.
4. NPC disappears. Ob 5.

This test for Trust cannot be helped by other PCs. If the testing PC succeeds in passing the then the questioned NPC refrains from "naming names." If the PC fails this test, then he is convinced the NPC has squealed on him (although this may not actually be the case, the character is now paranoid, convinced the Weasels know about his underground activities, etc.). Also, the rating of Trust is reduced by 1 point.

INCREASING TRUST
Helping another character complete a Goal can earn 1 point added to Trust.

[Scott]

Scott again,
A question on this setting has been on my mind. The setting is very dark and serious and specific to a WW2 feel. What I wonder though is how much are we still MICE. The enemy will mostly be the weasels and other mice I believe, but when outside we still need to watch for weather and owls and snakes and such? Or has the tech of the time pretty much made those old fears obsolete?

Has the enemy ceased being the environment and our mouse nature here? Do mice still fear the animals of the field and tree? I could see a scene involving mice and weasels in conflict, perhaps even deadly conflict suddenly thrown on it's head by the emergence of a fox which sends everyone running... but not sure that kind of thing FEELS right for this setting, where the enemy is essentially us.

And how much does the fact that we are mice in this setting change it from being human. A mouse's nature is still to run and to hide, how does that color our reactions to the horrific events going on around us.

Thoughts?

[Rafe]

Perhaps an aside, but it could be useful to read "Maus" by Art Spiegelman. (It's a graphic novel, of sorts, about WWII and the Holocaust specifically.) The Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, Americans bulldogs, etc. It's not exactly right, but the feel is fairly close. Might help a bit with the feel.