Made in Abyss Mouse Guard Tweak

Made in Abyss Tweak for Mouse Guard.

Make character as usual, you are a human rather than a mouse, part of the Diving Guild rather than the Mouse Guard. The society implied by the Mouse Guard character creation seems to work pretty well with the 'City/Culture centered around abyss diving' type setup, so nothing to change here really. Choose family profession, job, mentor, etc. as usual. Might have to change a profession here or there to fit the setting, otherwise no issues.

The higher ranked Mouse Guard ranks count as higher ranked whistles. Similarly to the Mouse Guard, higher whistle ranks mean older and more powerful characters, but with less flexibility and growth potential and generally higher mental than physical stats.

Tenderpaw = Red Whistle (14-17 yrs)
Guardmouse = Blue Whistle (18-25 yrs)
Patrol Guard = Moon Whistle (21-50 yrs)
Patrol Leader = Black Whistle (21-60 yrs)
Guard Captain = No. (41-60 yrs)

MiA has less 'accessible' ranks than MG so no Guard Captain-level characters on character creation. Patrol Leaders (Black Whistle) on approval of table. If someone chooses a Red Whistle character one of the squad members HAS to be their mentor (chosen at character creation).

Squads of mixed whistle colors are seen in the show, so no changes needed here.


Major Gameplay Cycle

In vanilla Mouse Guard you get sent on missions by Mouse Guard HQ, you complete those missions until it is winter, at which point you have a feast and hibernate or whatever it is. That is also when you get promoted (or not).

In Made in Abyss Mouse Guard the Diving Guild gives you missions to retreive specific artifacts, hunt problematic monsters, or capture rogue/bandit divers in various layers of the abyss (appropriate to your team's capability). You do a certain number of missions at which point everyone in your group is assessed for promotion. Rather than wait to winter, simply decide on a promotion cycle. Either every X missions or only after some significantly major mission happens.

Similar to vanilla Mouse Guard it is harder to be promoted if you start higher ranked. The upshot is that starting higher ranked means you're more capable and get to play a mentor role in the group.

I don't know how much this part jives with the canon of the Made in Abyss setting, there is probably not a 'Diving Guild' per say, but there is clearly some structure in charge which occasionally sends divers on specific missions, etc. Either way even if it doesn't perfectly match MiA this is only supposed to be 'very close' to MiA, not exactly MiA anyway so I think these slight changes to allow MG and MiA to meet in the middle are fine.


Minor Gameplay Cycle

In vanilla Mouse Guard you switch between 2 phases, I forget what they're called, an active phase of persuing the mission and a passive phase of rest and recuperation along side more passive approaches to the mission. An example being chasing a bandit, then (whether successful or not) returning to the local town to recoup and get more information.

Similarly in Made in Abyss Mouse Guard you would actively try to track down your target artefact, and along the way face some challenge (like a monster, or some environmental hazard, etc) then you will enter a recoup phase where you make a camp in a safe spot, tend your wounds, investigate the area in a safe way, and so on. Repeat until you obtain the Artefact then your next 'passive' phase will be back in town, where your characters will spend some amount of time recouping from the ascent sickness and so on.


"Nature"

Replace all nature types with "Abyssal Nature" but give it applicability to things that make sense for that animal/monster/whatever. For humans it is "Abyssal Nature (Abyssal Survival Instincts, Abyssal Self-Modification, Entrust yourself to the Abyss)" or something like that. The last one there is essentially escaping harm by delving deeper into the Abyss via some leap of faith. The second last one includes the act of self-modification but also use of self-modified tools. The first is an Abyssal Nature mediated survival check.

White Whistles have a high Abyssal Nature, possibly even a 10, since it seems that all (most) have been changed significantly by their time in the Abyss, either directly or through the use of relics or whatever.


Other shit

There is probably other stuff to change but I don't have the book in front of me and I'm not about to get it out and go through all of it, I'm going to sleep. Feel free to add/change stuff or suggest things or whatever, I don't care. Free use and all that shit.