mouse guard book review

Fostering curiosity in kids (and their parents) since 2011

Book review: mouse guard by david petersen.

By Shala Howell , November 29, 2019

Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen

Book Summary: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152

“ The forest is a dangerous place for any animal, especially one as small as a mouse. In the past, the mouse world endured a tyrannical Weasel Warlord until a noble band of mouse soldiers fought back. Ever since, the Mouse Guard has defended the paces and prosperity of its kingdom. For generations, this league of scouts, weather-watchers, trailblazers, and protectors has passed on its knowledge and skills. “Now three of the Guard’s finest have been dispatched. The mission seems simple: They are to find a missing mouse, a grain merchant who never arrived at his destination. But when they find him, they make a shocking discovery—one that involves a treacherous betrayal, a stolen secret, and a rising power that has only one goal: to bring down the Guard…” From the book description on Goodreads

What I thought of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152

The graphic novel section of the middle school library where I volunteer is by far the most popular section. Every time I go in, I spend at least 30 minutes cleaning it up. The kids at the middle school adore graphic novels, but aren’t as fond of putting them back where they belong.

Since there’s a three book check-out limit at the library, and since most graphic novel series contain far more than three books that for the most part need to be read in order, the kids are quite skilled at coming with strategies to hide the next book in whatever series they are reading. I am constantly finding books filed under the wrong letter, hidden behind other books, upside down, and sideways (so that the bottom of the book faces out instead of the spine).

One of the novels I found tucked away under C instead of P last month was David Petersen’s Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 . The student who had filed it had taken the added security precaution of filing it with its spine to the wall, presumably so other readers wouldn’t be able to find it until he or she was done reading.

As I was fixing it, the cover with its brilliant fall leaves and fierce swash-buckling mouse caught my attention. So I checked it out (sorry, anonymous middle schooler, but if you want to protect the books from the librarians, you’ll have to put them back where they belong).

The story itself is engaging enough. The basic premise is that the forest houses a fully-fledged mouse kingdom made up of various towns and villages filled with peaceful mouse artisans, craftspeople, and tradesmen. The society is protected from threats external and domestic by a band of mouse warriors, known as the Mouse Guard.

Although the Mouse Guard does face some serious external threats in the Fall of 1152, most notably an extremely hungry owl, the main threat to the once-peaceful society comes from within. A rogue army rises, led by a former Mouse Guard warrior determined to seize power for himself.

The quote from Variety on the book cover describes Mouse Guard as a blend of Lord of the Rings and Stuart Little , and I can definitely see why. The rogue leader, Midnight, could be seen as a mouse version of Sauron, and all stories about mice are inevitably compared to Stuart Little at one point or another.

But I think a much better description would be to call this book a cross between Jill Barklem’s Brambly Hedge and Brian Jacques’ Redwall .

David Petersen and Jill Barklem both surround their mice with mouse-sized versions of human architecture and furniture

In Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 David Petersen has created a visual feast, with richly detailed illustrations of mouse homes, pubs, workshops, and streets that remind me of the illustrations Jill Barklem created for Brambly Hedge .

And, like Redwall , the fate of this entire society depends upon the actions of a few brave mice.

There’s less feasting though. I don’t expect a Mouse Guard cookbook to be released any time soon .

There is a highly-rated role playing game , however, which reviewers describe as a great way to introduce middle schoolers to table top role playing games. The rules are less complex than Dungeon-and-Dragons, and the terrors mainly terrifying when you remember to see them from a mouse’s point of view. Still, there appears to be enough here to keep you and your middle schooler interested while you form patrols and lead missions to keep the Mouse Territories safe from owls, rogue battalions, and winter famine.

And of course, there is a set of graphic novels with which to immerse yourself into the world . So if you were looking for a role-playing game suitable for your middle schooler, this might be a good one to try.

Who would enjoy Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 ?

• Anyone looking for a graphic novel series suitable for middle grade readers
• Fans of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series
• Readers looking for beautifully illustrated animal adventure stories

Related Links

• Book Review: Brambly Hedge (Caterpickles)
• David Petersen’s blog
• Official Mouse Guard website
• More book reviews on Caterpickles

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Review: Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game

Imagine a world where a spring rain is torrential, pea-sized hail destroys crops, removing felled limbs from roads is Herculean, boulders are mountains, snakes are dragons and every day is a struggle to survive.  Welcome to the Mouse Territories – where the mundane, simple affairs that you and I take for granted are a constant challenge to existence for those at the bottom of the food chain.  However, there is hope.  A group of dedicated and courageous mice have devoted their lives to serve their fellow species in this harsh and unforgiving world.  Welcome to the Mouse Guard.

How it Plays

  Mouse Guard is a pen-and-paper role-playing game created by veteran designer Luke Crane and based on the graphic novels of David Petersen.  Players create mice characters who serve in the Mouse Guard, a quasi-military order which aids and protects fellow mice throughout the Territories in a Middle Ages-style world setting.  Guided by the game master (GM) – a separate participant who keeps events structured and within the rules – players assume the identities of their mice through one or more sessions as a patrol performing Guard duties, embarking on journeys and overcoming challenges.  In essence, each session becomes an adventure within a developing chronicle where everyone at the table is a storyteller.

The Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game book tackles not just the system’s rules, but Petersen’s imaginative world, as well as general descriptions and philosophies about role-playing as a genre.  It is cleanly organized, immaculately beautiful and structured into chapters covering distinctive aspects of the game with handy cross-references where appropriate.  It is written in a casual, narrative tone that assumes its reader has no previous role-playing experience.  With a very useful index this volume will be both players’ and game master’s bible during every session, because everyone at the table will need frequent reminders, clarifications and ideas.

The 2 nd edition boxed set includes the revised rules, unfortunately in paperback, but offers other goodies.  There is a bi-fold map of the Territories for handy orientation.  It includes pads of character and GM sheets, both for recording information about characters, missions and the story – as well as brief rules summaries.  A tri-fold GM screen also provides tables and rules synopses.  The edition adds a small booklet with new rules concepts and extra pre-generated missions.  The best new components, however, are twenty custom dice and four decks of player cards.  The dice are solid and heavy with ouroboroi on three sides representing 1-3, crossed swords on two signifying 4-5 and a black axe on the sixth face.  The sturdy, linen-finished cards are used during play.  Each pack has an assortment of weapons and armor the mice can carry and lists their benefits and attributes.  Other cards assign physical conditions the characters might suffer and then penalties under them.  Finally, there are copies of action cards you will play during certain conflicts.

Players create their mouse characters through interviews, essentially writing miniature autobiographies.  During the process you’ll choose and assign rules-necessary values to common abilities, special skills and unique traits and wises.  You’ll also have narrative material to build stories by identifying name, rank and previous experience under the Guard.  You’ll establish important biographical knowledge like your hometown and parents, as well as naming your staunchest friends and vilest enemies.  You even pick the color of your cloak and explain why that hue symbolizes your character.  Most important of all you write a belief and instinct which anchor your character and guide your actions, whether through everyday life or trying ordeals.  You earn rewards successfully playing those ideals, so choose them carefully keeping in mind both drama and practicality.

When playing Mouse Guard sessions are divided into two turns: the game master’s turn and the players’ turn.  This structure is pretty unique and has been known to trip up veteran role-players familiar with less defined formats.  During the GM’s turn, the GM primarily runs the story by setting up a mission for the patrol and then throwing obstacles and challenges in their path as they navigate the scenario.  It will be rough, it will be hard – it’s supposed to be.  When the patrol has completed their mission, or otherwise reached a natural break as determined by the GM, the players take over the story.  At that point, they may recover from their ordeal, delve deeper into their quests, and/or embark on whatever other tasks they wish (and generally makes sense within the narrative).

Challenges that the patrol must overcome can range from the mundane to the heroic and are resolved through tests – or dice rolls.  Tests can be independent, versus another character or a full-blown conflict involving several tests strung together.

Independent tests are obstacles where one quick roll will suffice to move the story along.  Things like short trips, building a shelter, looking up a friend, tending to the injured, etc.  When confronted by these, the GM assigns an obstacle number, or difficulty level, plus a requisite skill to face the challenge according to the rules and any currently extenuating circumstances.  Any character can then roll a number of dice equal to his/her rating in that skill, maybe even aiding their effort with a special trait that gives an edge.  Plus they can receive a helping die from each of their patrol mates, as long as they can plausibly role-play how they are lending a hand – or paw.  Every result of 4, 5 and 6 is a success (crossed swords or the black ax if using the custom dice).  If the number of successes equals or exceeds the obstacle’s difficulty, the challenge is passed.

Versus tests are also quick affairs to keep the story moving, but used when directly interacting with another player or a non-playing character introduced by the GM.  Things like hiding from something, trying to pry some minor information from another mouse, haggling with, arguing against, deceiving or distracting another denizen of the Mouse Territories.  As in an independent test each versus test is categorized by a skill.  However, instead of an obstacle difficulty, you simply grab an amount of dice equal to your skill rating plus any helping dice and roll against your opposing character.  Whoever rolls the most number of successes wins the test and narrates the action.

Some plot events, though, are too significant and momentous to quickly roll past.  You want to act through them and relish in the details.  Things like climactic fights, desperate chases, intricate building projects, elaborate debates or complex operations.  Such episodes are worth spending time on because they’re that important to your story and to your players’ development.  Testing abilities or skills relevant to the type of conflict, these usually arise only once per session and require several tests – a mixture of independent and versus rolls – to really flesh out the drama.

Typically, conflicts are team-oriented whenever possible, with the GM controlling the non-player team.  Both teams first declare what their goals are for the conflict, what they’d like to achieve.  Then they calculate their “dispositions” (hit points, essentially) also based on the situation and its applicable abilities/skills, which are provided in the rules.  The conflict is divided into rounds.  Each team receives three actions per round, planning their moves simultaneously in secret.  For the players’ team, teammates alternate choosing which action to take and then subsequently testing for it.  No matter what type of conflict it is, the actions are Attack, Defend, Maneuver and Feint.  These abstract concepts are then resolved in an intricate rock-paper-scissors fashion.  Players compare the two actions that each team chose in a given round and consult a table to determine whether to roll independent or versus tests and how they will affect the conflict.

When one team’s disposition falls to zero, the other side achieves their goal.  However, if the victors also lost disposition – which is almost a certainty – then they must concede certain consequences.  The system calls this concept compromises.  So maybe the patrol is able to track and capture a band of outlaws, but in the process lost half their disposition.  In that case, likely some or more suffer conditions, or maybe the fight damaged some private property which upsets the local community or perhaps even one or two bandits escape to cause mischief and embarrassment for the Guard later on.  If you barely survive a conflict, the resulting major compromise may prove just as disastrous as losing it outright!

While the emphasis, exact structure and rules might differ from other systems, most everything I’ve described thus far is fairly standard – at least conceptually – to other role-playing games.  Build a character, undertake quests, write a story.  What really sets Mouse Guard apart are Beliefs, Instincts and Goals and how those approaches influence game play.  These three notions can also easily trip up players, both novice and veteran alike.

Every character is guided by these principles – or should be – and you decide what uniquely shapes your guardsmouse.  A belief is a core value that informs how your mouse views the world and acts within it.  For example, an outlook such as, “Reason is the best guide to right action,” wouldn’t lead one to rashness or bluster.  An instinct is more particular, a natural reaction that your character exhibits when confronted with many situations.  Perhaps you immediately rush to the aid of those in need of protection.  Goals are objectives you set out to achieve or work towards apart from simply just wanting to successfully complete the mission.  These can be rather fluid and change from session to session.  But working towards finding something or someone, or proving your worth to others, or other personal tasks means there’s always more going on than just the assignment.

After every session the GM and players debrief – out of character – to discuss the game, which may be just as exhilarating as 벳엔드 먹튀 , and each character’s progress.  Players decide who best utilized their beliefs, instincts and goals and in what ways and reward that play with persona and fate points.  These are benefits you can use the following session.  Persona points allow you to add dice to your dice pool when resolving tests or perhaps to tap your nature – a mechanic allowing you to add your mouse’s nature rating to any skill test for a potentially large pool of dice (more about nature later).  Fate points allow you to reroll black ax results (6’s on generic dice) in tests, and keep rerolling additional axes, to add more successes when facing obstacles.

There are long-term rewards, too.  As you pass and fail the many struggles its world throws at you, service in the guard hones, prunes and purifies you.  You’ll advance skills, learn new ones and change your philosophy on life and service.  While overcoming tremendous challenges may provide glorious material for bards to write epic songs about your feats, more often simply surviving proves just as heroic.  Because if anything, a mouse guard who can’t adapt will soon succumb to the harsh environment he has devoted his life to enriching for his brethren species.

Should You Join the Ranks?

  While for some it may be a difficult stigma to overlook, don’t let the little, furry, anthropomorphic mice fool you.  This is not a childish game.  The system here – a simpler adaptation of Luke Crane’s heftier Burning Wheel engine – is indeed kid-friendly and will attract younger players.  But don’t let that mislead you.  Mouse Guard is neither overly-simplistic nor weak on substance.  The design forces players to emphasize dialogue and communal storytelling – a.k.a., role playing – instead of relying on tons of detailed stats, rules and dice to move the action along – a.k.a., roll playing.  It’s not some frivolous Redwall knock-off or cutesy cartoon.  It is a fleshed-out world full of pathos and gravitas, ready to explore and mold, rife with everyday challenges.

Exactly what is the Mouse Guard world, then?  Unique, imaginative and surprisingly complex.  One of the game’s high points is how well it captures Peterson’s world in the graphic novels.

The territories are a loose confederation of independent settlements set in vague, medieval-like times.  They have intricate communities and governments, extract and work with the land’s resources, till the soil, domesticate even smaller organisms, study the natural world and philosophize about life and morality.  While mice are intelligent with a language and culture, other creatures act as we would perceive them – except for weasels and their genus kin.  Weasels have a distinct society and are the Territories’ mortal enemies, even to the extent of war.

The Guard itself is centrally located at its stronghold Lockhaven.  From there, the organization’s matriarch dispatches patrols throughout the reach and to its far borders, which are protected by a scientifically brewed scent laid down to keep out most dangerous predators.  Patrols can take the form of delivering mail, clearing trails, escorting citizens, confronting nuisance animals, lending aid wherever needed, repairing the scent border, fending off predators and enemies and much more!  Guardsmice dedicate their lives to serve the territories and their fellow mice.  It’s a hard service and often a thankless one as the guard has no political or legal jurisdiction in towns or cities.  In short, all of these elements create a world where common morals are bedrock principles, surmounting simple obstacles is heroic, surviving every day is a challenge.  This is the world you’ll adventure into and overcome, while allowing it to shape and mold you in order to better serve all mice.

The three foundations central to the Mouse Guard system are beliefs, instincts and goals.  Thematically, they provide rich material that flesh out characters, make them dynamic and create interesting stories.  After all, as the Guard says, “It’s not what you fight, but what you fight for !”  They literally define your guardmouse.  Beyond that these principles effectively serve as mechanical props for both player and GM.

Players are encouraged to role-play their beliefs and instincts as they decide on a course of action and narrate results.  Working these concepts into your game develops strong characters, generates natural plot lines and also rewards players for effectively implementing them into the story.  They can also be a guide.  Don’t know how to proceed or what to say in a certain situation?  Review your beliefs and instincts.  They’re likely to provide a clue as to how you’re character would proceed!  You can even earn rewards and create more complex characterization by purposefully going against your natural tendencies and better judgment.  These all aid in playing the game, as well as developing your personality.

Likewise the GM is encouraged to build missions that challenge a patrol’s beliefs, instill scenarios that test instincts and throw in obstacles to individual goals.  The GM may not succeed at tailoring every session to perfectly align with them, but those ideas will always serve as good guidelines when crafting missions.  Want to know where to take the players or what to confront them with?  Review their collective beliefs and instincts.  They’re sure to provide some material that will make sessions relevant and poignant for the team – while making the GM’s job easier!

Speaking of the GM’s job, crafting sessions and the fluid nature of missions are two other prominent aspects of the system.  It’s simple.  Preparation is certainly required, but not to the extent necessary in many other RPG titles.  The GM primarily sets the scene as to what the patrol needs to accomplish.  Then he prepares two hazards that can jeopardize the mission.  The rule book says these threats should come in the form of weather, wilderness, animals, or mice .  The GM reserves the other two options as possible additions to play.  It’s helpful to make notes on towns, non-player characters and ways players might tackle problems, but Mouse Guard’s true beauty is how play evolves organically.  As the mission unfolds, it invariably takes off in unexpected directions because failure means progress, too !

That’s right…failure is good.  This is likely one of the biggest mental hurdles players must overcome.  In other titles failure represents a roadblock, a setback, an outcome you direly wish to avoid.  In Mouse Guard it continues to advance the story and develop character.  In order to increase your skills, you have to both pass and fail a number of obstacles testing that skill.  Quite frankly, this is brilliant.  And thematically wonderful – after all, we learn from our mistakes, too, right?  Additionally, players are rewarded for using their skills and traits to impede themselves during tests, thus making tough situations even more difficult to overcome.  This delightful aspect generates great role-playing while also garnering players extra checks to spend doing things they want to do during the players’ turn.

To be sure players and the patrol will pass many tests over their careers.  In those cases everyone rejoices, the mission continues, life moves on.  But what happens when a test goes poorly and a mouse’s gallant effort falls short?  Death is rare.  It can always be part of the mix, but generally in only major circumstances like conflicts – and then it’s an expressed goal of a patrol’s opposition, so that it’s never a surprise.  Typically, though, a GM has two options in the face of failure.

One, he can allow the player or patrol to succeed anyway, but with a condition.  There are five: hungry and thirsty, tired, angry, injured and sick.  Each affect play differently and require separate tests to recover.  All players helping out in the situation get a condition if things go badly, however the mouse making the roll is always assigned a more severe one.  Saddled with a single ailment isn’t a terrible problem, but if they pile up it can make a guardmouse’s life miserable, indeed.  Players are not solely left to their own devices to relieve these conditions, but generally may only attend to them during the players’ turn.

Instead of letting the patrol continue on with these impediments, the GM may instead invoke a twist when one or more fail a test.  Here he can inject one of those reserved hazard elements to take the mission, characters and story in a slightly or totally new direction!  The mission never stalls, it just takes a detour.  All the while he continues to push the struggling band to the limits of their endurance.  I believe the rule book literally says the GM’s job is to beat the crap out of the mice!  Again though, it’s not just giving them things to fight against, but also moments to analyze why they fight at all.

After all, it’s not in a mouse’s nature to fight.  Nature is another concept critical to Mouse Guard, both narratively and mechanically.  Essentially it represents what comes natural to the denizens of the territories be they mice, weasels or other animals.  For mice it’s in their nature to escape , hide , climb and forage .  The higher your nature the more mouse-like you are.  The lower it goes the more you risk disconnecting with society as you become totally unlike other mice.  In any test involving these ideas, a player can always test Nature instead of another applicable skill.

However, and more interestingly, since service in the Guard is about as un-mouse like a work as anything, you can utilize your nature differently.  You can tap your nature by spending a persona point and add your nature’s ability rating to that of another ability or skill you’re testing.  This increases your dice pool and maybe your chance of passing.  The tradeoff is your nature will be taxed, or temporarily reduced until you can recover it under special circumstances – or decide to keep it permanently depleted.  If you succeed a roll after tapping your nature in an action which doesn’t come natural to mice, the ability is taxed by one.  If you fail, though, it can be taxed greater.  So the more you attempt un-mouse-like things, the more distant you may become with your fellow kind.

Other elements that we generally take for granted that afflict mice every day are weather and the seasons.  Weather plays a critical role in Mouse Guard.  It’s one of the hazard types you can throw at the patrol during missions.  It also affects play in significant ways.  It can make tests easier or harder, depending on conditions.  Seasonal weather can frame the general objectives of missions.  Spring is about emerging from Winter and involves tasks such as delivering mail, clearing trails and reestablishing contact with settlements isolated during the cold and snow.  Summer means taking care of a variety of jobs while the conditions are ideal, but also fending off increased activity from predators.  Fall involves harvesting and preparing for the next Winter when little activity is undertaken, even in the Guard.

Seasons also logically mark the passage of time.  New campaigns typically begin with the onset of Spring.  Each season is assigned a unique number, an equivalent of its nature.  To get through each season requires a certain number of weather changes, each time of year with a unique threshold.  Weather can change when a player successfully passes a weather-watcher test or if the GM introduces the scenario with a twist.  When the requisite number of changes occur the game moves into the next season which affects play in new and evolving ways.  When the game reaches Winter the patrol can opt to continue on with a mission, but only when absolutely necessary and then with tremendous stakes at hand.

Instead, the Winter session is typically about reflecting on the game and its guardmice.  There are personal decisions to make, as well as judgments from your patrol mates and the GM that can develop your character.  You might advance some skills, nix a trait or two, adopt new ones and even change your beliefs and instincts.  Your character ages, maybe even earning a promotion, and then the game begins anew with the coming of next Spring.  This respite of contemplation may sound boring after sessions full of action, heroic exploits and fantastic story building, but it’s actually cathartic.  It allows you to evaluate your game in light of your beliefs, instincts and general goals to see if you’re successfully incorporating them into your role-playing.  If not, this is your stress-free opportunity to modify and/or change them.  In a system where effectively playing those concepts is one of the more challenging and important aspects, this wind-down session is welcome and rewarding.  And it still manages to develop characters and add layers to the ongoing narrative in the process.

The system’s turn structure might trip up players at first, though ironically more so for veteran players accustomed to the free-flowing form pervasive in most other titles.  Players have severely restricted leeway during the GM’s turn, and vice versa.  That’s not to say they’re handcuffed in their irrespective phases, nor that decisions and actions in one never affect the other.  Indeed, players are encouraged to act in ways that hamper their efforts in the GM’s phase in order to undertake more productive tasks during their own turn.  And conditions amassed in the former must be ameliorated in the later.  So the outcome in one aspect will generally have consequences impacting the next.

The GM’s turn is typically the crux of the mission, where important acts resolve towards achieving the Guard’s goals.  The system allows for a great mixture of simple independent tests, tension-filled versus rolls and a full-blown conflict as the play’s final climax.  It’s enough to make stats important and relevant, without weighing you down.  The emphasis is on narrative, instead of non-stop dice rolling, allowing for rich story-building.  And since rolls are less frequent then in many crunch-heavy titles, it even tends to lend more significance to every test, more drama in every pass and fail.

Meanwhile the players’ turn gives them opportunity to break free from the GM’s mission parameters – remaining within the story’s logical bounds, of course.  It’s meant to expand upon the story without completely tangenting it.  When incorporated properly, it’s a lot of fun and provides rabbit trails for players to individually explore, yet can still influence the game overall.

Alas, this element is probably the second hardest of Mouse Guard to implement successfully.  If you don’t remember – or refuse – to impede yourself in the GM’s turn, then you only have one thing to do during this phase.  When having only one or two checks, they’re invariably spent on recovering conditions or gearing up for the next leg of the journey.  With multiple checks players can do more interesting things, get lost in greater role-playing and generally revel in the previous mission’s success – or wallow in despondent failure.  Either way, characters develop, storylines advance and maybe even new elements appear that will pop up again later to dramatic effect!

Mouse Guard has many merits inherent to introductory role-playing games, but with a lot of substance typically reserved for heavier systems.  It’s perfect as a design to bring new and experienced role-players together.  There is a learning curve, even for genre veterans, yet that’s because it’s unique and offers some very different elements.  However, once you’re familiar with its mechanics, grok the turn structure and grasp the principle of beliefs, instincts and goals, this system is smooth and highly adaptable.

But more than its mechanics, Mouse Guard provides a beautifully rendered sandbox ripe for creating rich characters and deep stories.  As the tiniest of protagonists, your sworn duty is not just to survive in the harsh world like other mice, but take it head on to better the lives of your fellow kind.  Together you’ll forge chronicles of sacrificial heroism and tragic shortcomings against obstacles that larger creatures simply take for granted.  Don’t let the diminutively furry subject matter fool you.  The struggle is real and daring.

Worth the Struggle

• User Ratings ( 4 Votes) 9.8 Your Rating: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

Accessible, yet not overly simplistic Kid friendly, but with substance Really encourages story and role-playing Beliefs and instincts create layered characters Goals keep missions focused and players on task GM role critical, but not overburdened Sessions have nice cinematic build-up Imaginative world Book full of great practical role-playing tips Beautiful, high-quality volume, artwork and contents

Effectively playing beliefs and instincts takes lots of practice GM vs. Player turn structure can be confusing or feel restrictive Conflict resolution not heavy on stats and rules Really need player investment

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I have lots of kids. Board games help me connect with them, while still retaining my sanity...relatively speaking.

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Discussion 4 comments.

Nice review and summary of the game! I just played Mouse Guard last night and it is so wonderful. It’s heroic and heartbreaking at the same time. We traveled from Lockhaven to Elmoss and already everyone feels like heroes! One of my favorite games ever with one of the most pyrrhic resolution systems ever.

Thanks! Yes, it’s amazing and surprising how serious it feels and gets. The subject matter can throw you off!

Alternative character sheet for Mouse Guard. More white space than the official one, so looks a little cleaner and less daunting (but that does mean it has less rule help on it).

Aimed more at new players with the features needed for the player’s turn at the top (Traits), then the in-game features for bonuses (Wises), then for ongoing character progression (earning Artha, and skills, further down).,

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jQgJlGrUdFsicORFTFY_V4Dl4pf3JtXv

I enjoyed your review, but could not disagree more with your opinion that this game is kid-friendly. I’ve been playing RPGs with kids under the age of 12 for years, and there is NO WAY IN HECK any kid would be able to apply the convoluted Conflict rules in Mouse Guard. That being said, the rest of the basic rules system of 4-6 successes on 6-sided dice is simple enough.

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Boom preview: mouse guard: the owlhen caregiver.

Today BOOM! Studios announced Mouse Guard will return this July! Series creator David Petersen will continue to expand on the Mouse Territories and introduce readers to all sorts of creatures and adventures.  “Short stories are magical things,” Petersen said, “Despite their size, they are exactly the right shape to hold large messages of morality and virtue,” said Petersen. “The common themes in these stories are ones of hope and of compassion, of service and the wellbeing of others. And every world could use more of that.”

Mouse Guard: The Owlhen Caregiver

Writer/Artist: David Petersen Release Date: July 2021

LOS ANGELES, CA (April 16, 2021)  –  BOOM! Studios today announced  MOUSE GUARD: THE OWLHEN CAREGIVER , a special issue that collects three poignant tales that mark creator David Petersen’s return to his beloved Eisner and Harvey Award-winning, New York Times bestselling series in this self-contained special, available in July 2021. Which of life’s biggest lessons can be learned from the smallest amongst us? A young mouse learns that compassion and kindness are the great virtues in  The Owlhen Caregiver . Meanwhile,  Piper the Listener  finds a brave mouse venturing into wild country to learn the tongues of other beasts. And finally, a grizzled oldfur shares the lesson of putting a whisker out too far in  The Wild Wolf. “I’m so pleased that readers get to walk back into the Mouse Territories, be accompanied by familiar Guardmice, and encounter snakes, owls, wolves, rams, otters, toads, and foxes again. Short stories are magical things. Despite their size, they are exactly the right shape to hold large messages of morality and virtue,” said Petersen. “The common themes in these stories are ones of hope and of compassion, of service and the wellbeing of others. And every world could use more of that.” Mouse Guard  is a New York Times Bestselling, Eisner & Harvey Award winning comic book series written and illustrated by David Petersen. Digging into his love of animal stories and medieval role playing games, David created a fantasy adventure world of cloaked, sword wielding mice who protect the common mouse against threats of predator, weather, & wilderness. The stories are released as a series of miniseries available as individual comic issues first, and then collected into hardcover volumes. “It’s very exciting to return to the world of  MOUSE GUARD  and engage with the characters and stories that David has beautifully created and continues to expand upon,” said Bryce Carlson, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “David has an incredible talent for writing and illustrating stories that bring the reader into the richly detailed world drawn from his imagination and it’s simply a joy to spend time in this world and allow David to guide the journey.” MOUSE GUARD  is the latest release from BOOM! Studios’ ambitious Archaia imprint, home to graphic novels such as  Bolivar  by Sean Rubin;  Slaughterhouse-Five  by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, and Albert Monteys;  The Sacrifice of Darkness  by Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne-Oliver, and Rebecca Kirby;  Big Black: Stand at Attica  by Frank “Big Black” Smith, Jared Reinmuth, and Améziane,  We Served the People  by Emei Burell, and licensed series including  Lev Grossman’s The Magicians  by Lilah Sturges and Pius Bak, as well as  Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance  and  Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Coronation. Print copies of  MOUSE GUARD: THE OWLHEN CAREGIVER , featuring cover art by Petersen, will be available for sale in July 2021 exclusively at local comic book shops (use  comicshoplocator.com  to find the nearest one) or at the BOOM! Studios webstore. Digital copies can be purchased from content providers, including comiXology, iBooks, Google Play, and Madefire.   For continuing news on  MOUSE GUARD  and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to  www.boom-studios.com  and follow  @boomstudios  on Twitter. 

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The Mouse Guard RPG Box Set: An In-depth Review

Let's begin by seeing how the publisher describes the game:

Join the Mouse Guard and defend the Mouse Territories against predators and dangers, in this roleplaying game for the acclaimed Mouse Guard comic book series! Players form their own Mouse Guard patrol and attempt to complete missions while the Game Master takes on the roles of the weather, animals and the wilderness all trying to thwart the fearless mice.

Before opening up the box, let me talk about the box itself. It's a hefty, square shaped box (23cm x 23cm x 9.5cm thick), lavishly illustrated and of high quality construction. Lifting it, one immediately notices how heavy it is, largely because it's packed with material. Opening it, one finds:

• a 320-page, full color, softcover rules book, a 44-page supplement with new missions and rules
• 3 action decks (1 for the GM, 2 for players) for scripting conflicts
• a set of Condition cards used for tracking adverse conditions affecting characters
• a set of cards detailing weapon stats
• a pad of characters sheets
• a pad of GM record sheets
• a set of 10 custom dice
• a GM's reference screen
• 5 colorful, plastic mouse tokens (which resemble those shown in the comic)
• a map of the Mouse Territories

Turning to the rule book, it too clearly is both a labor of love and attention to detail. It is easily the most beautiful RPG I have ever laid eyes on - like the original hardback version of the book, the Mouse Guard rulebook outdoes even the largest RPG publisher's books. That's fact, not opinion. The book is printed on heavy, glossy paper and filled from start to finish with lavish, full-color illustrations. The layout, the fonts, and the cover all convey a powerful sense of aesthetics. Incidentally, the book's dimensions are square which makes it a bit unusual to place on a shelf, but it's done for a specific reason: the book exactly matches the comic and graphic novels' dimensions, fitting perfectly next to them on a shelf. The Game Itself

Okay, so the box and book are beautiful. How is the game? At the risk of jumping straight to the punchline: wow, is the game good. The book is very well-written and manages to explain how to play the game, in very simple terms so that those new to roleplaying games can understand and yet, as someone who owns dozens of RPGs, I never felt that things were being over-simplified and it was an easy and enjoyable read from start to finish. The book starts with a basic explanation of what roleplaying is and the basic mechanics of the game before jumping right into character creation and the resolution system. Next is an explanation of the structure of sessions, followed by a description of the Territories and their Denizens. The book then finishes up by detailing abilities, skills, traits, and how to create missions and your own characters.

So what makes this game special? Let's start with the basic mechanics. Mouse Guard (MG) is built on the same basic, well-tested mechanics as those used in Burning Wheel and Burning Empires, but is a much more refined and streamlined system. Some would call it a "lite" version of Burning Wheel (BW) but I would take exception to that term since it suggests that MG is somehow a cheaper or dumber version of BW which it is not. Instead MG trims away the unnecessary parts of BW and hones other mechanics to much more tightly capture the feel and style of the MG comics. Whereas BW is meant to be a workman's fantasy RPG which the group uses to "burn up" their setting, MG is instead designed to do one particular setting really well.

The system also differentiates between two levels of resolution: Tests and Conflicts. Tests are simple, single roll task resolution in which the number of successes is compared either to a target number based on the difficult of the task Ob (in MG terms, the obstacle's difficulty or "Ob" of the task), or to an opposing character's number of successes. The number of success beyond the Ob, or over your opponent's number, determines the margin of success. It's a very intuitive and elegant system that handles situations like untrained skills and teamwork in a very satisfying way.

Conflicts introduce another level of complexity and depth to the system in which the characters involved script their actions, consult a 4x4 table (attack vs. defense) to see how those actions interact, and then make an action test. It's a simplified version of the Fight! and Duel of Wits mechanics from Burning Wheel and having played both, I think it's a big improvement for the average gamer. MG captures the same feel and concept as BW in a much more streamlined way. What kinds of conflicts does the system handle? The short answer is "anything." The more detailed answer is that it can handle situations like arguments, chases, fights, negotiations, journeys, speeches, or even all-out war, all with the same basic mechanic and just a few rolls. Perhaps the most innovative part of the whole system is the way teamwork factors into a fight: patrol members divide actions between the team members in each turn, which means that conflicts involving 2 or more mice have a built-in team vibe to them where each member contributes to the action of each exchange. This approach also captures the style of the comic very well: one patrol member might act to distract an enemy while another strikes from a flank, with the two actions working together in a synergistic way that allows the small, physically limited mice to deal with a much larger foe. The only trick is that players need to learn to actively work as a team, something that may take a couple of conflicts to get the hang of, but within a session or two everyone I've ever played the game with gets it. For those of you who have read the comics, you should recognize that this closely resembles the action in the story - the patrol works as a team to defeat its enemies (e.g., the battle with the snake in the Fall 1152 series).

Similarly, damage in the setting is handled by assigning Conditions to a guardmouse: Healthy, Hungry & Thirsty, Angry, Tired, Injured, or Sick. Each of these conditions comes with a very tangible game effect and multiple conditions stack so over the course of a mission a mouse may take quite a beating. Conditions create a very simple, descriptive system for modeling damage and stress that characters can use to easily gauge and roleplay their character's physical and mental status. I really like the system and find it very easy to work with. Of course it's not highly lethal but the game isn't really about representing grievous, bleeding, head wounds but that's fine with me since it fits the genre and style of the comic well. Death is still possible; it's just that the system doesn't model seven levels of wounding.

I really love the mechanics because they are simple but very flexible. They also create play sessions that match the pacing, feel, and style of the comic book which inspired the game. That's really cool. In addition, the way characters are defined also help to create very clear, evocative characters whose past, present, and future (in terms of goals) are laid out during character creation. Part of this process includes defining three core pieces of every character:

• Beliefs - a personal code, ethical stance, or guiding principle
• Instincts - gut reaction, ingrained training, or automatic behaviors of the character
• Traits - the personality quirks and special qualities of the character

These three pieces of information, coupled with the rest of the character generation (in which a character's important relationships, past training, and skills are defined) really help to create unique and very flavorful characters. The character generation system, which is formally detailed in the last chapter of the book, is very intuitive, so much so that even brand new roleplayers I've introduced to the game have been able to create very colorful, story-rich characters. The process is laid in a clear, step-by-step manner which is easy to follow and fun to complete as a group (the game explicitly states that character generation should be a group process). This approach guarantees the group forms a coherent and balanced patrol, and also helps flesh out the intra-group relationships right from the start. In all of the MG games I've run, the group's dynamics emerge during this process and typically players are able to jump right into character from the very start of play.

Once the mission has been assigned, the GM's Turn begins. Essentially, this is structured much like any other traditional RPG where the GM defines scenes and obstacles to challenge the patrol. Challenges typically come in the form of weather, nature (as in the wilderness), animals, or other mice. Here is where the meat of the roleplaying and active conflicts take place. The GM simply springboards off of the group's successes and especially failures, creating twists and developments in the story and helping push the mice to their limits.

Once the GM's Turn is over, the Players' Turn begins. Here the game becomes a bit more "indie" in that players now get the opportunity to contribute to the narrative development of the story by defining specific events, scenes, or checks they want to see to wrap up the story. Typically the Players' Turn will involve the recovery from stress, re-equiping themselves, building relationships with NPCs, and furthering personal story arcs.

The end of the session then involves a ritualized procedure in which rewards are given out for characters who met their Goal, as well as involved their Beliefs and/or Instincts in the session's play. This reward procedure actively involves the whole table, both the players and the GM, in determining who deserves special recognition and who doesn't. This is one of my favorite parts since it involves the whole group rather leaving the decision solely up to the game master - as a GM, often events or play that I thought was pretty run-of-the-mill turn out to be really powerful or significant in the eyes of the other players and thus involving them in making these decisions is only natural.

The types of missions, as well as the obstacles experienced during them, are shaped by the Season, and the rule book spends a considerable number of pages explaining how the seasons shape the lives and duties of the guardmice, as well as the mouse territories in general. Aside from providing interesting facts and details about the setting, the chapter also helps provide guidance to the GM about what types of missions and weather-related obstacles are appropriate for the chosen season.

The chapters that follow provide an overview of the mouse Territories, including the major settlements, along with the inhabitants found in the territories. Only two sentient races exist in the game: mice and weasels (and related species like ferrets and martens). Weasels are much more physically powerful than mice, although the way the game defines characters means that a patrol stands a decent chance of defeating one if they work together. Wild animals represent most of the "monsters" within the game and these range from bears to snakes. Perhaps the most interesting bit about mice fighting larger animals is that the game explicitly defines what a patrol can and cannot actually kill - mice, being small and frail, can take on animals that are marginally bigger than themselves (e.g., a snake or weasel) but cannot seriously threaten a large animal like a badger or a wolf, at least in normal combat. Instead mice must resort to science or large scale, military action (i.e., they must wage war on it) to take on a big foe. This to me is a fantastic feature because it creates a situation where PCs can't simply take anything on head-to-head but instead must find alternative methods, creating tons of situations for interesting roleplaying and conflict situations.

The book is rounded out by extensive descriptions of the skills and traits available to characters, as well as a set of sample missions which illustrate different types of missions. Each of these missions is accompanied by four pre-generated characters so that players can jump right into the action. In fact, the first sample mission is a recreation of the events that take place during the Fall 1152 in which three guardmice set out to find a missing grain peddler. I've run a couple of the sample missions and would recommend anyone new to the game do the same since they provide a good overview of how to structure a mission and how the characters' abilities interact with the mission's obstacles. It's also quite interesting how what appears to be a simply mission can develop in to a fully developed story - I've had a few rather amazing story lines develop from the "Grain Peddler" mission, none of which resembled each other at all once we moved beyond the initial mission's set-up. The last chapter, as mentioned earlier, is a detailed explanation of character generation and is perhaps the best written chapter in the entire book.

Aside from the core rulebook, which is identical to the older, hardback version, the box set also comes with a 44-page, saddle-stapled book that contains a selection of supplemental material. These include rules for "weapons" to be used in non-combat conflicts like supplies for a Journey, Flashing Coin for a negotiation, and camouflage for fighting animals. The game also includes rules for mounts, including hares which made an appearance in the Winter 1152 series. The book also details three more locations within the Mouse Territories, providing both game "stats" as well as a variety of story hooks. The largest portion of the book includes three new missions along with suitable pre-generated characters. Much like the original MG RPG book's inclusion of a mission based upon the Fall 1152 series, the first new mission - Mission of Mercy - is based upon the events at the start of the Winter 1152 series. The other two missions are equally interesting - one involves dealing with a beaver dam that is threatening to flood a village and the other the maintenance of the scent border - with either capable of serving as the kicking off point for a series of adventures. The book concludes with an explanation of the new materials (i.e., the rest of the box's contents) and how best to use them.

The Verdict

The Mouse Guard Box Set takes what was easily one of the best roleplaying games made and builds upon it to create a fantastic product. Rich and detailed enough for even the most seasoned roleplaying fanatic, the game still manages to be very approachable for someone completely new to roleplaying. The game's layout and style work equally well for either group and I would not hesitate to recommend the set for someone wanting to get into the hobby.

For those unfamiliar with the comics, do not be fooled by the subject matter: while the story involves playing anthropomorphic mice, it is neither cute nor childish - Petersen's world is one of danger and grim threats in which the weak struggle against the very forces of nature to survive. As such it's a perfect world for adult players to explore - the fact that you're playing mice makes it, in my opinion, all the more interesting because the external threats are apparent (e.g., a fox is a very clear threat to mice) and awe inspiring when one opens their imagination to the realities of being a mouse (e.g., a black bear is the equivalent of Godzilla to a village of mice). In a hobby where many games revolve around the heroes mopping the floor with dragons, it's refreshing to approach things from a different perspective. while it sounds kind of goofy to play mice, all it takes is a look at the illustrations and most people lose those fears. If you're a fan of the Mouse Guard comics, or liked the Redwall books, the Mouse Guard RPG is definitely for you. However, I would go out on a limb and say that most people will like this game if the theme and subject is of any interest to them.

That said, Mouse Guard works equally well with kids - the tone and nature of the game can easily be adapted to younger sensibilities and the nature of the challenges (e.g., dealing with a beaver's dam) are something even younger children can wrap their heads around. For example, the Redwall novels could be used as the basis for a game, although I think the Mouse Guard comics themselves are a perfect introduction to the gaming world even for younger kids - while the story is somewhat grim in tone, there's nothing overly gratuitous or violent about them and the main protagonists are heroic do-gooders. Likewise, the mechanics of the game are also easy for children to learn, made even more so when you use the custom dice included in the box set, and the characters themselves are made with a minimal amount of math or extensive writing. I have played the game with children as young as eight (my own son) without any issues whatsoever in terms of the rules or mechanics, and I consider it one of the best games available for teaching roleplaying to kids since it offers a variety of ways to solve problems (versus the typical emphasis on killing adversaries) and its default set-up is based upon an altruistic group working for the betterment of the community rather than self-serving adventurers out to win fame and fortune.

In the end it's hard not to gush over the Mouse Guard Box Set. Having been actively involved in the hobby for over a quarter century I've owned a lot of games but this is without a doubt one of the very best.

Review – You Should Play Mouse Guard by David Petersen

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Comic book to rpg.

If you’re looking for a shorter, simpler game that still has the classic feel of Burning Wheel, if you’d like to play a game where you are inherently the lowest part of the food chain, if you’d just like to be a mouse, I recommend Mouse Guard highly. ” – Ryan Howse Tweet

About The Game

B ased on the award-winning Mouse Guard comic book and graphic novel series by David Petersen, this pen-and-paper traditional RPG designed by Luke Crane contains everything players need to know about the world of the Guard including rules for forming patrols and heading up missions into the Territories. Features artwork and extensive background material from series creator David Petersen.

My Thoughts

The first of these articles I wrote was for Burning Wheel, which remains my favorite tabletop RPG of all time. But it is a huge commitment, designed for long-term play, and quite complicated.

Mouse Guard was also designed by Luke Crane of Burning Wheel, inspired by the Mouse Guard comics of David Peterson. Both the comics and the RPG follow the eponymous Mouse Guard, a group of armed, knight-like mice who try to defend their homes from various woodland predators, make sure there’s enough food for winter, and keep the roads safe.

Many RPGs tend towards being a power fantasy, where your elf wizard or space marine psychic can tear apart fundamental aspects of reality to destroy their enemies. That has a place, don’t get me wrong, but it’s absolutely a ton of fun to do the exact opposite and play as some of the weakest beings around, trying to face down predators who are far more lethal.

While you’re absolutely playing as defenders of the land, and people who are trained to deal with these situations, the fact that you are always outmatched gives an air of horror to the gameplay.

Your character can start as a young upstart, called a ‘tenderpaw’ if another player will be their mentor. They can be a Guard Mouse or a Patrol Guard for more capable but older mice. Only one player should take the role of Patrol Captain.

Mouse Guard uses a similar, but simplified version of Burning Wheel rules.

Just like in Burning Wheel, you roll only d6s. Those d6s are based on your skill in whatever area you’re attempting. If you’re trying to forage for food, look at your foraging. Roll the number of dice you have. A 4 or higher counts as a success, while a 3 or less is a failure.

Mice all start with a Nature score of 7. The closer to 1, the more human-like your mouse is. The closer to 7, the more animalistic. Just like Burning Wheel has Steel questions during character creation, Mouse Guard has Nature questions that can affect your starting Nature.

Burning Wheel had three very elaborate subsystems—Duel of Wits, Fight! and Range and Cover. Mouse Guard just has Fight! and it’s much simpler, with only four options to choose from instead of the dozen+ in Burning Wheel. Your options are attack, defend, feint, and maneuver. Just like in Burning Wheel, the actions happen simultaneously, and they interact differently with each other, so there’s a hint of rock-scissor-paper to it.

If you’re looking for a shorter, simpler game that still has the classic feel of Burning Wheel, if you’d like to play a game where you are inherently the lowest part of the food chain, if you’d just like to be a mouse, I recommend Mouse Guard highly.

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Want to try mouse guard before buying the books. pdf.

I'm wanting to try out mouse guard. Sadly, I'm low on funds right now and can't justify buying the books yet. Does anyone have a PDF of the players handbook/manual thing? I do want to get the actual books one day, just don't have the money for it right now. Thanks in advance!

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Book Review: ‘Kent State’ a chilling examination of 1970 campus shooting and its ramifications

This book cover image released by Norton shows “Kent State: An American Tragedy” by Brian VanDeMark. (Norton via AP)

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More than a half century has passed since Ohio National Guard members opened fire on college students during a war protest at Kent State University , killing four students and injuring nine others.

The description of the nation, then split over the Vietnam War, leading up to the 1970 tragedy echo today’s politics and divisions in many ways. In “Kent State: An American Tragedy,” historian Brian VanDeMark recounts a country that had split into two warring camps that would not and could not understand each other.

“It was a tense, suspicious, and combustible atmosphere that required only a spark to ignite a tragedy,” VanDeMark writes.

VanDeMark succeeds at helping readers understand that atmosphere, creating a chilling narrative of the spark and ensuing tragedy at Kent State. Within less than 13 seconds, 30 guardsmen fired 67 shots at protesters in an event where “the Vietnam War came home and the Sixties came to an end,” he writes.

With a straightforward writing style, VanDeMark provides both a micro and macro look at the events leading up to the massacre — examining the growing dissent against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and how it rippled across Kent State’s campus.

VanDeMark relies on a host of new material, including interviews with some of the guardsmen, to reconstruct the protests on campus and the shooting. He also recounts the investigations and legal fights that ensued following the shooting.

“Kent State” portrays a campus that grappled for years with its legacy, with no official memorial to the slain students erected on campus until two decades later, in 1990. A new visitors center devoted to the shooting that opened in 2012 suggested an emerging consensus about the tragedy, writes VanDeMark, whose work may contribute to that consensus as well.

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The Spoiler-Filled Book Reader Debriefing About ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2

Two of The Ringer’s ‘Fire & Blood’ scholars review what went right and wrong in Season 2, and what’s in store for the rest of the series

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Zach Kram: Lord Riley, we meet again! I’m delighted by our choice of location today, as we relax in the Dragonstone library, surrounded by scrolls and the weight of Westerosi history. To our fellow visitors, be warned: This is a no-spoilers-barred discussion of all things House of the Dragon and Fire & Blood . Read on only if you, like Helaena Targaryen, already know what will happen in this story’s future.

Now that HotD Season 2 has (prematurely?) concluded, it’s time to reconvene, take stock of our preseason conversation and predictions , and examine what the last eight episodes mean for the remaining trajectory of this prequel show. Let’s start with some general observations before zooming in on specifics: Despite an underwhelming and anticlimactic finale , I still enjoyed Season 2 and thought it was superior to Season 1, with more consistency, more action, and more thorough world-building.

But what was your opinion of the season, Riley—do you agree with my overview or think it’s too optimistic? And when looking back on our preseason chat, which prediction are you proudest to have nailed, and which did you whiff on the most?

Riley McAtee: I’ve been turning the season over in my mind ever since I watched the finale, trying to figure out what it reminded me of, and I finally have it. Season 2 of House of the Dragon would be like a season of Game of Thrones built virtually entirely around Daenerys’s arc in Meereen. It felt like a lot of excuses to not use dragons. A lot of stalling. A lot of “Just get on with it already.”

Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot I liked about this season—Rook’s Rest, Daemon’s Harrenhal arc (controversial, but it won me over), Gwayne Hightower, Jacaerys’s diplomacy skills, Alys Rivers—but as I wrote shortly after watching the finale, the season felt like less than the sum of its parts. Obviously, the last-minute decision to cut the season down to eight episodes had a huge amount to do with that. But even if we had gotten the conclusion we wanted (more on that in a minute), it wouldn’t have fixed some real pacing issues with this season.

In his books, George R.R. Martin is very good at creating things for his characters to do that are somewhat outside the main conflict of the story—he has character arcs within the main arc of the series. I don’t think House of the Dragon does that very well, which is why you get so many characters putzing around in the same locations, having the same conversations, leading to little happening. (This is all a long way of saying I wanted to see Jace kick it in the North with Sara Snow.)

And as for predictions, not to toot my own ( dragon ) horn, but I was so correct about the showrunners’ desire to find any way to get Alicent and Rhaenyra in a room together that I was correct about it twice . Why are two of the most important figures on each side of the war able to get within spitting distance of each other so easily (especially after multiple assassination attempts)? Who cares?! TV logic prevails!

But, wow, were we ever wrong about the Starks’ place in the story. I was shocked that Cregan was in only the first scene of the season—I really thought we’d get some extended time up north. Heck, we barely even saw Winterfell at all.

What about you? How are you feeling about the predictions you made?

Kram: Well, to be fair to House of the Dragon ’s writers, they need to create things for many characters to do because Fire & Blood ’s narrative structure means it just drops key people for long stretches of time. Thus we get Alicent’s putzing around King’s Landing, Jace’s putzing around Dragonstone, and Daemon’s putzing around Harrenhal. (Speaking of: You wrote in our preseason chat, “I’d bet a gold dragon that [Daemon] returns to Dragonstone after taking Harrenhal this season.” Pay up!)

My best prediction was that Rhaenyra would be much more involved than she is in this stage of the book—and thank goodness for that change, because Emma D’Arcy is an absolute star. Rhaenyra doesn’t merely putz around, and I think Rhaenyra’s portrayal shows that (as with Game of Thrones at its best) this fictional world is at its most dynamic when characters are moving around the wide map and crossing paths.

But while I’m disappointed to have missed on my prediction about the Starks, I’m even more annoyed to have misfired with my forecast on where the season would conclude. I thought the obvious end point would be Rhaenyra’s ascension to the Iron Throne after taking King’s Landing—though, in my defense, I wrote that I expected that moment to come in the finale “because I’m not sure what else works as a season climax.” Apparently the show didn’t know either, and it just dispensed with the notion of including a climax at all.

So that’s the first question on my mind as we look ahead to Season 3, likely slated for 2026: How does this pacing affect your view of what’s coming next? In my mailbag this week , a reader asked what Season 2’s lack of battles after Rook’s Rest meant going forward, and I admitted some confusion. We know from post-finale comments by showrunner Ryan Condal that the Battle of the Gullet will occur “very shortly in terms of storytelling,” so let’s mark that down for early in Season 3.

But is there enough remaining space, with potentially only 16 episodes left (two more seasons at maybe eight hours apiece), to include all the other battles and set pieces left in the source text’s plot? How can this story map cohere?

McAtee: All bangers, all the time , I guess. Theoretically, the show is slated to include these major events:

• The Battle of the Gullet
• The Battle of the Honeywine
• The Fishfeed
• The fall of King’s Landing
• The Butcher’s Ball
• The First Battle of Tumbleton
• The fall of Dragonstone
• The Battle Above the Gods Eye
• The Storming of the Dragonpit
• The Second Battle of Tumbleton
• The death of Rhaenyra
• The Battle of the Kingsroad
• The death of Aegon II
• The coronation of Aegon III
• The Hour of the Wolf

Some of these events can be combined and/or cut, but this is a lot to get through. I am skeptical that 16 episodes are enough to do it. This entire season had just one big dragon battle; how will they pull off one every couple of episodes, or thereabouts, the rest of the way?

There are a few ideas I have to condense things. One would be to move the Battle of the Honeywine off-screen, or make it short and sweet—much as the show approached the Battle of the Burning Mill this season.

I also think the Fishfeed and the Butcher’s Ball could be combined into one big Riverlands battle. We’ve been introduced to so few of the main combatants involved in the Fishfeed that it makes sense to throw Criston Cole in there, and at that point, you may as well accelerate through to his death.

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The fall of Dragonstone could also be changed. Sunfyre may be dead, and Aegon’s legs are already broken, so a quieter conquest of the castle seems in order. I’m not sure exactly what the show will do with Baela and Moondancer, though.

The Battle of the Kingsroad seems ripe to be cut—or to happen off-screen. Or, at the very least, to be moved in the timeline. It’s hard for me to see any big battles happening in the show after Rhaenyra’s death.

And then finally, I think the Hour of the Wolf will happen—we simply must see Cregan again—but it’ll happen before or concurrent with Aegon III’s ascension to the throne.

So let’s see, that leaves us with these “big” events:

• The Fishfeed/Butcher’s Ball
• The coronation of Aegon III/the Hour of the Wolf

Still a lot to get through! But I guess I’m actually talking myself into it here. Does this seem doable to you?

Kram: Wait, you think Sunfyre might actually be dead? I know all the characters think he is and that we haven’t seen him since his fall at Rook’s Rest, but that would be a massive canon change. He needs to be alive to kill Rhaenyra! Joffrey told us as much when he spoiled the prequel show in Thrones .

As I tried to sketch out a potential timeline for all those bullet-pointed events, I found it easiest to work backward. Let’s say that in the series finale, Aegon II dies, and a young, miserable, dragonless Aegon III is crowned; that would be an apt way to wrap up the themes of the story. Then Rhaenyra probably needs to die in the penultimate or antepenultimate (yes, it’s a word!) episode, which means she has to flee the capital no later than Season 4, Episode 5 (assuming eight-episode seasons). Ideally, she’d spend at least a season’s worth of episodes in power in King’s Landing before that, to drive home the slow demise of her position that leads to the Storming of the Dragonpit.

So at a minimum, to tell the best story possible, Rhaenyra needs to take King’s Landing within the first few episodes of Season 3. (That suggestion also matches the “three days” timeline Alicent provides in the Season 2 finale.) That requires the Gullet (which Condal said would be “the biggest thing to date we have pulled off”), a giant Riverlands battle, and the fall of King’s Landing all in a row. That pacing would be wildly out of proportion to anything Dragon has depicted thus far, without much room to breathe between set pieces.

Given that potential outline, I feel fairly confident that First Tumbleton will be Season 3’s last big battle—thus bookending an otherwise triumphant Rhaenyra season with Jace’s death in the Gullet at the start and the great dragonseed betrayal at Tumbleton at the end. Then in Season 4, we’d see the Gods Eye (because there’s no way they’re killing off Matt Smith and Ewan Mitchell before the last season), Dragonpit, Second Tumbleton, and the rest.

That’s doable but would represent a break from the show’s first two seasons. Does HotD have the budget for all that dragon action, and does it have the appetite for such breakneck speed?

Thinking about Dragon ’s difficult position reminds me of a similar problem with the ASOIAF book series. George R.R. Martin’s novels—especially the most recent pair, A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons —tend to be slower, introspective, fairly meandering narratives, but he’ll have to speed things up if he wants to (a) fit his next manuscript into one book given the limits of printing presses and (b) wrap up his sprawling story in two more entries.

It’s the same deal here. Dragon even had to push the Gullet into Season 3, much as Martin had to push the battles of fire and ice into The Winds of Winter . And those decisions potentially create cascading pacing issues down the line—as we all know, this hasn’t been an easy problem for Martin to solve, or else we’d all have Winds on our shelves by now.

McAtee: Ah, you’re right about Sunfyre—he must be alive for Rhaenyra’s death. I just don’t understand why all the characters think he’s dead. Has no one checked on the dragon in the weeks since Rook’s Rest? It’s a head-scratching change.

Speaking of changes, let’s talk about some of them. The biggest change the series has made—by far in my opinion—is its use of prophecies and dreams. Daemon’s acid trips are not in Fire & Blood . Nor are Helaena’s. Nor is Aegon the Conqueror’s dream. And in the Season 2 finale, Daemon even sees the White Walkers and Daenerys Targaryen—another direct connection to the main series that is completely absent from the book.

I’m conflicted about this stuff. In the book, Daemon just kind of hangs around Harrenhal for a long time. It’s very boring. They had to give him something to do, and I enjoyed his conversations with Alys Rivers. But I also think the show has leaned a bit too heavily on prophecies and dreams for character development. Why do visions of the past and future have more of an effect on Daemon than Rhaenyra’s son’s killing has on her? Does Rhaenyra need to sleep in a weirwood bed to realize it’s time for some fire and blood?

I think Season 2 continued to clarify the showrunners’ vision for this story. They are leaning hard into the tragedy of it all—the inevitability of a war that was foreordained decades before—whereas Fire & Blood had more true antagonists with clearly selfish motivations. (Though the show also hits directly on the meta aspect here when Rhaenyra tells Alicent that history will remember her as a villain.)

Which changes stood out to you?

Kram: I wonder how the show’s embrace of prophecy might cause it to alter some elements of the adaptation to avoid outright spoiling itself. Dragon hasn’t shied away from alterations to major events in the canon, like Luke’s death (which it portrayed as solely Vhagar’s doing, against Aemond’s wishes), the Blood and Cheese affair (without little Maelor and a Sophie’s Choice situation for Helaena), and the dragon clash at Rook’s Rest (where Aemond ordered the fire blast that injured Aegon and Sunfyre).

And as you noted this week, Condal has teased the potential for more such tweaks. He said after the season, “I will just say that just because a thing is told to you doesn’t mean it’s going to happen exactly that way. And we’ve seen obviously in history and all that be misinterpreted before, both in the world of Fire & Blood and in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire .”

So might a future climactic event, like the fateful duel above the Gods Eye between Daemon/Caraxes and Aemond/Vhagar, look different on-screen than it does on the page? It’s kind of weird that Alys and Helaena have already told Daemon and Aemond, respectively, that they’ll die in that location! Condal justified that decision by saying some fans have already read Fire & Blood while others have Wikipedia at their fingertips, so secrets are difficult to keep—but that was true for Thrones as well, and Ned’s death, the Red Wedding, and Jon’s (temporary) death still surprised millions.

At any rate, we won’t find out about the Gods Eye until Season 4—see you in 2028!—but I wonder what other future adaptation changes were foreshadowed by Season 2. Will the betrayers’ turn at Tumbleton be different, now that we know more about the seeds’ backgrounds (Hugh and his family in particular)? Will show Rhaenyra be as paranoid about Daemon’s relationship with Rhaena as book Rhaenyra is about Daemon’s relationship with Nettles, assuming Sheepstealer’s rider follows the same plotline? Will Criston Cole still die anticlimactically and defenseless at the hands of men after descending into nihilism about dragon destruction? (I hope so—his sudden, unheroic death is incredible.)

I have to admit, I don’t agree with all of the adaptation changes thus far; I, too, am annoyed by the overreliance on prophecy and links to original Thrones . But as a fan of the material in both mediums, I’m glad we have the changes to interpret and speculate about, because I’d rather watch an interesting story than a mere one-to-one re-creation of something I’ve already read.

McAtee: One thing that’s interesting about the Battle Above the Gods Eye is that, in the book, basically no one witnessed it. Everything we know about it comes from a few fisherfolk who are said to have been present in the lake below—and I’m not really putting much stock in their reliability. So it’d be easy for the showrunners to argue that all the specifics from Fire & Blood —“You have lived too long, Nuncle” and all the rest, save for Dark Sister’s ultimate burial in Aemond’s blind eye—were just made up. They can change whatever they want about that scene.

That said, this is a scene that I think book readers will be more protective of than any other. If Daemon doesn’t jump off Caraxes and plunge his sword through Aemond’s eye socket, I’ll be irate. Condal can add a little fatalism to Daemon and Aemond—reading between the lines, the book already has some of that, at least for Daemon—but I’ll politely request that the specifics remain the same.

As for the other events you bring up, I agree that the betrayers’ turn at Tumbleton will be different. Hugh in particular is a character that Condal and Co. clearly believe was done dirty in the histories; he’s basically a completely different character in the show compared to the ambitious brute Fire & Blood portrays. I can’t wait to see what makes him turn on the blacks, though I’m sure it will have something to do with his wife.

I’m not sure that the show will be able to have its version of Rhaenyra order Rhaena’s assassination. I think that plot point is moving in a different direction. I will miss Nettles, though—I always liked the implication that Targaryens are actually not special and that they keep their exclusive grip on dragonriding through propaganda alone.

And finally, I’m also in agreement with you about Criston Cole. The finale scene he shared with Gwayne Hightower hinted at some redemption for him … but I hope the show stays true to the books and forgoes giving him a hero’s death. He sucks.

One way or another, we have a long wait ahead of us.

Kram: Not that long—you’ll have to start refreshing your memory of Dunk and Egg pretty soon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is only a year away!

Next Up In House of the Dragon

• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Wrap-Up
• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Wrap: Season Awards, Mailbag, and Book Look-Ahead
• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, Episode 8 Discussion and Thoughts
• Which ‘House of the Dragon’ Character Has the Toughest Two Days Ahead?
• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Breakdown: Has ‘House of the Dragon’ Spoiled Itself?
• ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Mailbag: When Will This Prequel Pick Up the Pace?

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Fact-Checking Claims About Tim Walz’s Record

Republicans have leveled inaccurate or misleading attacks on Mr. Walz’s response to protests in the summer of 2020, his positions on immigration and his role in the redesign of Minnesota’s flag.

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By Linda Qiu

Since Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was announced as the Democratic nominee for vice president, the Trump campaign and its allies have gone on the attack.

Mr. Walz, a former teacher and football coach from Nebraska who served in the National Guard, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and then as Minnesota’s governor in 2018. His branding of former President Donald J. Trump as “weird” this year caught on among Democrats and helped catapult him into the national spotlight and to the top of Vice President Kamala Harris’s list of potential running mates.

The Republican accusations, which include questions over his military service , seem intended at undercutting a re-energized campaign after President Biden stepped aside and Ms. Harris emerged as his replacement at the top of the ticket. Mr. Trump and his allies have criticized, sometimes inaccurately, Mr. Walz’s handling of protests in his state, his immigration policies, his comments about a ladder factory and the redesign of his state’s flag.

Here’s a fact check of some claims.

What Was Said

“Because if we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis.” — Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican nominee for vice president, during a rally on Wednesday in Philadelphia

This is exaggerated. Mr. Walz has faced criticism for not quickly activating the National Guard to quell civil unrest in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. But claims that he did not respond at all, or that the city burned down, are hyperbolic.

Mr. Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, and demonstrators took to the streets the next day . The protests intensified, with some vandalizing vehicles and setting fires. More than 700 state troopers and officers with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ mobile response team were deployed on May 26 to help the city’s police officers, according to a 2022 independent assessment by the state’s Department of Public Safety of the response to the unrest.

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