Maus Books Vol.1

 Growing up playing Morrowind and Baulder's Gate where every book picked up in the game is fully written, detailing various parts of lore in the world, I have always loved the immersion that comes with books in my tabletop games. That said, not all players are into this sort of thing and would rather use their very limited mouse inventory for other more survival related items. Books should be rare treasures, able to be brought back and sold or kept and there is nothing wrong with having a paragraph or two of interesting lore prepared should characters decide to take a peek inside.

Here are a few books that I wrote up that can be found in mouse settlements or elsewhere in the world. The spelling and grammar is intentionally odd to portray dialects and a non standardized pseudo medieval writing style for flavor.

A Brief History of the Earldom of Ek

It was in the early days did the six settlements come together by calamitous forces. For in those years a great storm poured forth its rains so heavily that every seed was washed from the soil and every food storage submerged. Begged the mice of the realms to the beavers to relent in their constructions but they declined. So proud were these folk of their edifice that the lives of the woodland creatures were of no concern and such little importance. A great swell of water overtook the fields where mice once foraged, under waves went ancient paths where many creatures travelled. Deep was the waters then, taller than a hundred mice. One point stood above the flat surface of the water the next morning after the calamity. A clustering of trees upon a hill called the Oaksgrove, and like moths to a glowing flame the mice drifted upon wood and upon rafts of debris from the wash that had sunken all. Building from the remains, the mice constructed homes in the trees, betwixts the trunks and branches. There in knotholes and amid the tangle of roots, mice refugee camps could be found. Even when the waters receded, still the mice of Ek dweleth within their new stronghold and stockpile supplies by trade to weather the next calamities.

The Acorn in the Stone

Deep in the wild wood, the squirrel kin have a story they telleth to many a strong and aspiring warrior. Long ago there was a bitter rivalry betwixt a pair of brothers. One named Hans and the other Otto. The brother Hans was strong with a fine tail, the eye of many a lady squirrel was upon him. His brother Otto was calm and brave, stoic in the face of his arrogant brother's boasting. Especially about his conquests. One day a beautiful white furred lady of the elder beech came to visit the brothers and asketh their help for in her kingdom, a great blight twas rotting all of their acorns collected for the winter stock. Otto offered first to help for her hand in marriage, but so too did his brother. And so it was that brothers would duel for this task and this fair maiden. Little did they know that this was a trick and fair maiden sought to destroy these strong squirrels by turning one on the other. Only then could she claim their family oak for her realm. And so the brothers fought and Otto was victorious but before the lady of the elder beech could claim Otto's family acorn, the magic that held the spirit of the oak, he thrust it betwixt a crack in a great stone and from there it has not been moved. Thought many a strong squirrel hath tried , for with it they may claim the great oak grove.

Grimoire Ratters

 

Sweettooth is an antagonistic character designed to be placed into any roleplay setting in Mausritter. Her family of stoats called the Grimoire Clan are "Ratters", a kind of roaming mercenary group that specializes in kill or capturing rodents with their contraptions and assassins. I plan to build this as a zine that will include a variety of traps and some details on this enemy faction.

The basic layout for traps are laid out as the third and fourth page are designed here. The zine is presented like a contraption catalog with commentary that is narrated by Sweettooth. The strange spelling and words are intentional and meant to portray her people's dialect.

Traps will have a basic diagram of key parts and for scale, a mouse silhouette. When a trap is triggered, a d10 is rolled in this case which details the outcome of the trap. Be warned that results of some traps range from malfunctions to instant character death. Remember to broadcast clues to the presence of traps and ways to avoid a fatal outcome.

The top two spreads are finalized for proof of concept, though I have many more traps planned for this zine, pending illustrations and tables.

The Clap trap is another form of common snap trap but apparently dates back from ancient Egypt. Unlike the human made snap trap, this one can be built from scratch by mice. Rather than a steel spring, the trap's tension comes from a twisted twine that can be adjusted for various strengths. This can make the trap non lethal if the aim is just to capture rodents or other small creatures, including birds.

Another non lethal trap design is the basic cage trap. This however will be easy to spot by most rodents and should be deployed with careful and clever camouflaged.

Habitat Uprising

 

Sometimes even the most conditioned or specialized colonist can be pushed beyond their tolerance and the results can be catastrophic.

Roll d20

1. The colonist have assembled a huge bomb and may detonate it at any moment. Currently in negotiations with the professors and making hostile demands.
2. Colonist have destroyed the professors and security, though all the inhabitants are female and have a fear and hatred of males. They will be aggressive to males and may attack on sight.
3. Colonist have destroyed the professors and security but are burnt by sunlight. They have a strong night vision ability and crave to drink blood.
4. The colony habitat is opened and the colonist have turned into a very organized bandit group that frequently raids other settlements and brings back captive for ransom.
5. Colonist have escaped the habitat but have recently returned with an army to siege and destroy the habitat. Many colonist are caught in the middle of the siege.
6. As per the experiment's plan, colonist were ordered to leave the habitat and attack the surrounding lands. They have since become pacifist healers and the security automatics have been recently ordered to terminate all colonist.
7. Most of the colonist are very strong but also incredibly short tempered and simple minded. They have destroyed the professors and security but are wary of the outside world.
8. Automatics have been reprogramed to join forces with the colonist and share the habitat together after having destroyed the professors. They are interested in technology and want to use the habitat to study science.
9. The colony long ago captured and enslaved the professors but generations later, their role has switched. The colonist now watch the professors in new experiments.
10. The colony is locked in an all out battle for supremacy between the colonist and the professors. The habitat is badly damaged and carnage within is non stop.
11. The colony has turned on itself and is fighting a civil war. Outside of the habitat, a camp of weapons dealers is supplying both sides for profit and keeping the war going.
12. The colony is divided into two kingdoms, some that support the professors and some that support the new king. The two sides meet and discuss treaties and trade on occasions.
13. The colony has opened the habitat after a successful uprising but has not escaped because they are very addicted to lotus provided by dispensers operated by the last of the professors. Colonist will submit to experiments for lotus rations.
14. The colony has overthrown the professors but thinks that they are bees with a long lived queen who births all new members of the colony. This settlement has a cast system with workers, drones and soldiers.
15. The colony long ago overthrew the professors but is extremely untrusting and afraid of outsiders often running away or becoming violent. It is believed that they were conditioned that the outside was extremely dangerous and untrustworthy.
16. One of the professors defected and has made the colony believe he is a living god. After destroying the other professors, has opened the habitat and is preparing to attack and absorb other settlements.
17. After a long conflict between the colonist and professors, a bio weapon was used that killed all organic life in the habitat. The automatics have somehow overrode their directive and wish to leave the habitat and live free amongst mice.
18. Colonist love their professors and consider them to be rock stars. They fan fare whenever they walk amid the colonist and the professors secretly are trying to escape the fanatical colony.
19. The colony is conditioned to hate and discredit anyone who tells a lie. When the professors tell the colony that there is a world outside the habitat, they turn on the professors and begin an uprising under a leader who claims he knows that there is no outside world. The illusion is shattered when outsiders arrive. Everything they thought they knew is now in question.
20. The colony has slaved to build a powerful space rocket and launch facility inside the habitat. They have since overthrown the professors the rocket program was intended for and the colonist now intend to use the rocket to leave the planet but need a few extra parts.

Failed Habitats

 

Utopian habitat experiments do not always go as planned. Sometimes entire facilities can be found completely lifeless with little to no clue as to what went wrong, recently or long ago.

Roll d20

1. Bottles of a strange energy drink found in the hands of or near every skeleton that is scattered about the habitat.
2. Bones are everywhere and badly mangled and scattered in all corners, evidence of old blood stains coating every wall.
3. Only piles of clothing and personal items are found all across the colony with no signs of anything alive, not even bodies or skeletons.
4. Evidence of a devastating fire that has gutted the entire habitat. Only burnt bones and ash remain.
5. A ruptured water system has flooded the entire habitat. Bones of the drowned are found in the sunken passages.
6. Piles of bones found near the habitats food supply deck that is locked. the room beyond the reinforced glass is filled with food.
7. Bones found with evidence of a cannibal invasion. Tribal effigies and saw marked bone piles mark every room.
8. The habitat door is open and there are no colonist inside. the entire habitat is overgrown with plant life and mushrooms.
9. Clothed colonist mummies are all over the habitat. A strange disinfectant smell is heavy in the air. Writings suggest that the  colony has been sterilized of all microorganisms.
10. The colony is full of cordyceps zombies and strange spores that grow on the wall and some float in the air.
11. Only bones remain in the colony with evidence of fighting. Automatics have red eyes and are still in attack mode, aggressively chasing anything they encounter.
12. The colony is full of an incredible amount of bones, in some places hip deep. A strange pheromone is venting in the air.
13. The power system is inoperable and the colony is in complete darkness. Many doors are locked and bones dot the halls in many rooms with cryptic writing and messages on the walls.
14. No mice are found in the colony except for strange crystals of salt that grow out of clothing piles.
15. Bones stained pink are found all over the habitat. Strange canisters of pink protein paste are hung as feeders in every room.
16. No mice in the colony except for large mushrooms growing in strange places where mice might work and sit, underneath the fungus are piles of clothes.
17. Most of the habitat is electrified due to a malfunctioning generator. Skeletons are found all over the habitat.
18. Evidence of defensive positions are found all across the habitat but no mice or any trace of them. In one room is a giant hole in the wall with a long slime trail slithering throughout the complex.
19. The colony is completely filled with cobwebs and spider silk cocoons filled with mouse bones.
20. The colony is badly rusted and corroded. Dangerous pools of acid are found all over with no signs of any mice colonist.

Extra Actions

I will use this post as a list for some new actions as I think of them.

• Run on all fours - If your mouse drops what they have in their hands, they can run away on all fours, doubling their speed to escape a predator or other danger. This fast dash can only be sustained for as many actions as the mouse has strength score.
• Bite - Mice have sharp incisors and can bite as an unarmed attack. This should be no stronger than d4 damage and of course must be point blank.

If you got any suggestions, let me know!

Recovery Coma

Medic!

Mausritter is an OSR style roleplay where you simply roll up a new character when they die. The journey and the peril of dying is the point of the RP, without a possible deadly outcome, surviving the dungeon is just not as meaningful and epic.

That said - In my opinion, not every defeat needs to end in death of a character. I am still working on the idea, but while playing Kenshi, a very brutal videogame, I learned that there is so much more to RP after your character falls.

Let me give a few examples:

Your mouse party is completely defeated in a battle. The rat bandits empty the party's pockets and takes what they want, then runs away, leaving the downed mice for dead. A roll is made, sort of like a death saving throw for each character. One wakes up and she staggers over to grab some bandages and fix herself and the others up. One or two of the mice do not make their saving throws and die, but she and another survive but now have to limp their way to safety, evading more rats and other threats.

Lets say that the party was not defeated by bandits, but by a vicious animal that will begin eating the characters alive if they do not make their saving throws.

Maybe the party is defeated by some wood shrews but then instead of dying, they wake up bandaged and prisoners while the guards talk about how these mice are to be sacrificed in the morning.

The possibilities are endless!

The game master might also give the player an option when their mouse fails their death saving throw. Would you like to roll up a new mouse? Go into a recovery coma, which will put the character unconscious for the duration of the mission - and roll a new mouse anyway. Or should they take a permanent wound?

The hit table seen here can be used in a variety of ways, and I will probably reference it in other house rules. Basically if the area of the body being hit is random, you would roll a d6 and refer to the table. Different body parts correspond to different stats and such as seen above. If a player chooses to take permanent damage to a body part, the game master could roll or choose a body part that makes most sense and the character takes permanent damage to some degree in the specified stat. Alternately you could use this table for temporary wounds and assign a simple series of wound severities that apply penalties to those stats while the body part is wounded and healing.

I will probably make a few tables, one for every body part. For example if damage is taken to the head, the table might contain a concussion, maybe an ear or an eye was permanently damaged, or a spectacular wound that leaves a scar across the face.

Utopia Habitats

 

"The cheese is a lie!"

Drew this one up this morning. The emblem of the URI. I think brutally simple is the way to go with this kind of evil science corporation. I was even thinking that the entrance to their habitats would have a distinct door, something like the gear like doors of vaults from fallout. Perhaps it is a big mouse door with a cheese emblem on the front and the habitat or a number stenciled in front.

I plan to make a set of tables to randomly generate the interior of a URI habitat, essentially a kind of ruination dungeon with a plot hook to go there and a the goal of escaping amid the denizen madness and security threats.

The Mighty Mice

 

"Two hundred and three... Two hundred and four..."

Mighty Mice

Through intense training and selective breeding, mighty mice are very tough though not very bright. Most have well defined muscles and a competitive spirit, energetic and constantly looking for a new challenge.

Creature - Mouse

8hp, STR 11, DEX: 11, WIL 5

Attacks: d10 Club


Colonist Disposition
d6

1. Constantly looking for a worthy opponent to spare or compete against in any physicals activity. They will never turn down a challenge and take offense if someone does not accept their challenge.
2. Believes that outside mice have secret knowledge or items that can grand them powers or make them stronger in some way. They will constantly pester outsider mice that come into their view.
3. They view anyone weaker as inferior and believe that they should leave. These mice only respect strength.
4. Wants to train other characters o be stronger and will at all times try to increase their strength with healthy food or coach like motivation.
5. Wants to recruit new colonist but only interested in strong characters. They will ignore all others and attempt to press gang strong characters into the colony.
6. Treat all interactions as forms of sports games and are constantly speaking like a coach and getting themselves psyched up.

Colony Situation

d6

1. The colony has a large and deadly gauntlet with many traps. Few make it through alive but those that do, get a trophy which is the highest form of honor in the colony and advances them in a victory based social order.
2. The colony is convinced that a strange colorful drink from dispensers in the colony will give them super powers. These powers never manifest but they are completely convinced they do.
3. The colony has a strict and brutal exercise schedule. Many colonist frequently pass out or die, yet the colony's coaches see this as weeding out the weak.
4. Running wheels power the colony's generators but the colony believes that should the power fail that the colony will wither out and die. Shifts of mice are kept running the wheels at all times.
5. The colony is so condition that strength is priority that generations of selective breeding has created very strong but dumb mice giants. These mice are easily confused and angered, usually resolving any problem they come across with brute force.
6. The colony has developed a very skilled school of martial arts. Anyone wishing anything in the colony including trade and information must fight a round against one of the training martial artist.

The Conditioned Mice

 

Shall not disobey...

Conditioned Mice

Through rigorous and brutal training, these mice have been conditioned into strange irrational behavior. Most conditioned mice seem hungry, stressed and desperate. Such colonies have extreme beliefs based on their conditioning and will fiercely defend it on principal alone.

Creature - Mouse

5hp, STR 8, DEX: 8, WIL 10

Attacks: d10 Spear

Colonist Disposition

d6

1. They find the behavior and customs of outsider mice so outlandish that they are both fascinated and fearful. They secretly want to know more about them.
2. Wants to enlist the party to further their own goals and will constantly attempt to remove their individualism and absorb them into the colony.
3. They want to find new technology or ideas to further their colonial goals to defeat an enemy or correct a dire situation.
4. Secretly wants a revolution to change or rid of the colonial situation but does not know where to begin.
5. Utterly hates anyone opposed to their views and will become violent if someone suggests a different way.
6. Wants to worship and revere outsider characters because they are different and from lands beyond the colony.

Colony Situation

d6

1. The colony has an opened door and yet the colonist have been so conditioned that the outside world is deadly, that they will guard the entrance and fight anyone to the death that tries to escape. They will often say it is for the good of the colony.
2. The colony has a caste system so rigid that no change in job is possible. When the colony's food farmers are killed in an accident, the colony would rather starve than to break the caste system and bring in the harvest.
3. The colony believes in an imaginary mouse named Bob who they worship like a cult. The brotherhood of Bob controls the colony and interprets bob's will which tends to be incredibly corrupt.
4. The colony is so convinced that an invisible sickness is in the colony, that they shave off their fur and wash several times a day. Any outsider mice are seen as unclean and must be cleansed as well. If this is refused they will immediately become hostile.
5. The colony is conditioned to believe whoever wears the silver mask of power is supreme ruler. Gladiatorial games are used to settle challenges for the right to wear the mask.
6. The colony is locked in a tense standoff with two militarized factions with a no man's land between them. Each side is convinced that the other has been building a dooms day weapon. Each side is preparing to destroy the other to save the colony. No such weapons exist but it is near impossible to convince them otherwise.

The Cloned Mice

 

One of us...

Cloned Mice

Most of these mice are clones of one or a small group of original mice and are extremely quirky.

Creature - Mouse

5hp, STR 8, DEX: 8, WIL 2

Attacks: d6 Improvised weapons

Colonist Disposition

Roll d6

1. Wants to clone the characters they encounter and constantly measure and take notes about them. They will try to test characters against each other and then choose the best just before revealing the process of cloning which involves blending the original mouse into a fine DNA paste.
2. Wants to learn everything about outsiders that enter their colony and will have a fan like fascination. They will begin to impersonate various characters and start to become them over time down to physical appearance with plastic surgery.
3. Obsessed with work and arranges their colony like a cubical environment. They will try to force the party into a work schedule with horrible hours and benefits.
4. The colony wants to take over the world and has meeting with huge mastermind plans, though they never seem to succeed with this goal and quite often fail miserably or the meetings devolve into riots.
5. Incredibly gullible colonist with a very Yes Man mentality. They will do whatever an outsider suggests and take anything said literally with no concept of lies or sarcasm.
6. The colony believes that clones are superiors to natural mice and want to compete against them in all things to prove their superiority. They deeply enjoy being complimented and hate defeat.

Colony Situation

Roll d6

1. The colony can no longer reproduce and are making clones of clones. These clones are growing more beast like and insane with every generation.
2. The colony has no sense of privacy and will aggressively invade personal space and belongings. They will also spread rumors in a media like organization and point out flaws and create false truths, slowly growing more hostile.
3. The colony does not need to sleep and will try to keep characters awake at all times and even go so far as to inject them with a strange anti-sleep serum.
4. The colony blindly obeys a computer called the Directive that is currently malfunctioning and giving strange and random orders which they still try to follow or interpret.
5. The colonist can no longer communicate with any word other than the name Isaac which they use in place of all other words when talking. Most of the colonist seem insane and may randomly turn hostile.
6. All colonist have a human like ear, nose, eye or tongue growing on their back which is fully functional. They believe all mice should have the same mutation and will try to surgically implant one of these body parts onto a character.

Utopian Staff

"Interesting. Let us instigate a little anarchy..."

Professor

The professor mice are few, probably between 1 to 10 per colony but they control everything from the safety of an command center somewhere deep inside the habitat. These mice rarely if ever communicate with the colony, and prefer to watch them and collect data. Most are elderly with gray or white fur and have remnants of lab identification tags in their ear, or it is sometimes ripped out.

Creature - Mouse

3hp, STR 8, DEX: 8, WIL 12

Attacks: d10 Crossbow

Wants to study other mice for the good of science.

"Directive: I live to serve."

Automatic

Roaming the corridors surrounding the inner control center of the habitat are security robots called Automatics. These mice like machines are very fast, very strong and very observant. They are a formidable creature to fight, though they are limited by a wind up mechanism in their back. While all Automatics are URI property, they will obey the first person that winds them up, beginning by asking for a directive. Directives can be anything their operator asks them to do.

Creature - Robot

5hp, STR 11, DEX: 11, WIL 5

Attacks: d8 Claws

Wants to obey their assigned directive, unquestioningly.

Utopia Research Initiative

Growing up, I loved the movie "The Secret of NIMH" and the true story of the Utopia Rat experiments is just perfect for a system like Mausritter. I was thinking of a re occurring dungeon add on that will occur anywhere a ruination or settlement might appear in a Hex crawl. The dungeon might have some random generation tables, as well as colony denizens and situation tables to make the experience different every time.

Utopias will be subterranean mouse colonies that are set up by ex laboratory mice called Professors. Each settlement will have a unique experiment and denizen type.

Rough sketch of the URI's logo.

I sketched up the main logo for the Utopia Research Initiative, which will take inspiration from Fallout's Vault tech, Portal's Aperture and of course NIMH's Utopia experiments.

Isaaaaac....

"The Cheese is a Lie!" Mice that fall into the clutches of a Utopia may figure that one out fairly fast. Besides that Easter egg, I was also thinking of having a spoof off of Fallout's Garry, where all the clones in a particular vault are of a guy named Garry and can only say that word while they try to kill your character. One group of my clone mice will only say Isaac, after Mausritter's creator. Mwahaha!

My Mausritter Blog

Hi, my name is Lux, welcome to my Mausritter Blog. This is intended to be a brainstorming feed for my main website of Tales of Moonshore.

Click to visit the main website.

The image above will take you to my site which contains all my finished or mostly finished supplements for Mausritter. In the meantime, I will be posting here as often as I can so that I will not loose ideas. My notes tend to get very disorganized after a while!

My usual notes clutter.

Please leave any comments and feedback about ideas I post here. I'd love to involve constructive ideas into the development process.