Feel free to suggest others that fit your character.
| Athletics | broad skill covering your character’s basic ability to run, jump, throw, swim, climb, etc. |
| Beast Finder | following and tracking animals |
| Beast Worker | working with the pack and work beasts (rabbits, bugs, moles, and other useful and helpful animals) |
| Combat: Fight | Skill covering close in combat with fists, feet, swords, axes, knives, clubs, etc. |
| Combat: Shoot | Skill covering ranged combat with bow/arrow and/or sling |
| Craft: Carpenter | |
| Craft: Food Worker / Cook | every group wants at least one of these in the party, or it’s trail mix and pemmican all the time |
| Craft: Leather Worker | |
| Craft: Metal Worker | |
| Empathy | ability in understanding and/or empathizing with others. Used for “getting a read” on people or recognizing when someone is lying. Like “Insight” in 5e D&D. |
| Food Finder / Survival | Skill at foraging for food and surviving in the wild |
| Hide | Skill at sneaking, moving quietly, and staying hidden |
| Lore: Archivist | Mouse Guard specific skill measuring familiarity with the Guard’s knowledge of chemistry, geography, lore, and cartography. |
| Lore: Knowledge / Education | Broad skill indicating one’s knowledge and learning. Can be narrowed down for character purposes for specific subjects. |
| Lore: First Aid / Medic | Skill in binding wounds and helping others recover from injuries. From Mediocre (+0) through Fair (+2) it’s considered basic First Aid, and at Good (+3) and above, your character is considered a Medic. |
| Lore: Weather Reader | skill at predicting the weather |
| Mouse Finder | “Streetwise in a rural environment” for social inquiries, finding the right mouse for the job, and figuring out where a specific mouse has gone |
| Notice | a measure of passive awareness, often rolled when the GM is checking to see whether you notice something. Think of it like “Passive Perception” in 5e D&D, and ask yourself whether your character is Mediocre (+0) or Average (+1) or Fair (+2) or Good (+3) at noticing things. |
| Pathfinder/Pathseeker | Two flavors of the same skill. Path Finders are better at finding the existing paths and keeping to them. Path Seekers are better at blazing new paths. Pick one to be better at, and get the other at a lesser degree for free. |
| Rapport | skill in actively influencing others. Used as a baseline skill for negotiations or haggling, or for chatting someone up. If your character’s Rapport is higher than their Willpower, it can be used to resist efforts by others to influence you. Often rolled when trying to negotiate or haggle, or to check whether a given NPC decides they like you or not. |
| Search / Investigate | skill in active searching (for when you’re trying to find something) |
| Wealth / Resources * | Rather than tracking cash and exact inventories, we will rely on a character’s Wealth or Resources attribute. If you have high Wealth or Resources, you’re more likely to be able to purchase something (or have access to it.) |
| Willpower | ability to resist temptation or to do things that are difficult or out of character. Often checked when attempting to resist a Compel (ie. someone suggests something that would be “in character” but not something that you want your character to do right now.) |
The following can be selected as additive Aspects or traits that will add to other skill checks when applicable. Each uses up one of your character’s “Average (+1)” attributes
- Scrappy (adds situational bonus to Fight and Athletics checks when initiating a quarrel )
- Tough (adds situational bonus to Willpower, Fight, and Athletics checks when resisting damage )
- Quick / Fleet (adds situational bonus to Athletics checks involving moving quickly )
- Cunning
- Deceptive
- Long Sighted
Starting Attributes
Our characters will start with ten different attributes:
- One Great (+4) attribute
- Two Good (+3) attributes
- Three Fair (+2) attributes
- Four Average (+1) attributes
Any Attribute or skill you choose not to invest a rating in will have a default rating of Mediocre (+0).
Skill Competence
- Mediocre (+0) indicates a lack of talent or training.
- Average (+1) indicates a novice level of training, or a degree of talent with no formal training.
- Fair (+2) and Good (+3) indicate journey-man or “professional” capacity, or a nearly inhuman degree of talent.
- Great (+4) and Superb (+5) indicate veteran or masterful capacity, or the combination of extreme talent and good training.
- Fantastic (+6) and above skirt the boundaries of natural human capacity.