Play Report and Game Review - Chapel of Peace (Mausritter)

A while ago I tried my hand at GMing Mausritter with the Chapel of Peace adventure from the Adventure Collection. Since that was one of my first OSR adventures (and definitely one of my favorites), I thought I'd write up a play report on how it went and what my thoughts were, coming from a previously D&D 5e background.

Beanless fools, you know who you are! Stay out!

Prep

Prep for the Chapel of Peace was ridiculously easy. I read through the premise on the first page, printed out everything I needed, and I was all good! Unlike in D&D, where I might prep a bunch of encounters and nudge the heroes towards a fight every hour or so, I had a handy list of 6 random encounters on the second page, which was more than enough for a fighting game like D&D, far more than enough for Mausritter.

I ended up only using one of those random encounters, specifically the 2d6 wandering converts, and even in that encounter no fights broke out. Compared to D&D (I'm going to do this a lot this post), Mausritter discouraged violence with very squishy characters.

Ultimately, prep was really simple and really easy. I just read through the 2 page document, printed everything out, and it worked! At the time of me prepping, I was a little miffed by there not being a player-friendly version of the map that didn't include the little rooftop secret. Only until after I finished the session (and after studying the holy text that is the back of Electric Bastionland), did I come to appreciate it. The players, with the "non-player-friendly" map, knew that there was a ladder leading to something going on up top, and could use that info to make informed decisions.

Overall, I'd rate the prep experience an 11/10. Fastest and most effective prep I've ever done.

Character Creation

When it finally came down to us playing the game, there were only two players, one of whom was completely new to TTRPGs. I had marketed the game as "Dungeons and Dragons, but you play these cute mice adventurers instead of wizards and stuff" and that honestly seemed to get my group way more invested. This might be because most of my friends are not big fantasy fans and rather prefer cozy vibes and cute things. When they do like fantasy, it's more Over the Garden Wall and less Lord of the Rings.

So, two players. We made characters at the table and it was incredibly simple, quick, and very effective (a recurring theme). One player rolled up a Beetleherd, and the other a Sparrow Rider or Worm Wrangler, I can't quite remember. Either way, the backgrounds listed were very thematic, and they breathed a lot of life into the characters from the get-go.

Inventory management was fairly simple and fun, and the starting gear was just as appropriately cute and mouse-like as we'd hoped. Managing everything on the little print-out cards was very fun and easy to do at the table, but once we left it was a bit of a mess to clean up.

Other than that little thing, character creation was very fast and fun, and a breath of fresh air compared to D&D's hefty, multiple-hours-long session. Even compared to some of the OSR games I've run before (namely OSRIC), Mausritter had especially quick character creation, and the characters my players made were not any less lovable because of it.

 

Part 1 - Exploring the Chapel

These next few sections are going to be potentially vague and winding, as this whole adventure took place a while ago. If you just want to get to the game review, skip down to Closing Thoughts.

I had the heroes start out outside the chapel and roll once on the Adventure Hooks table to see what brought them there. They rolled the first hook, about searching for a mouse that had been brought here, and began their quest. Instead of using Heloise and Milaster, I had them search for a mouse named Olive (I think). I saved Heloise and Milaster for a later part of the chapel.

After getting inside, a good half of the day was spent looking around, talking to mice, and trying to figure out what was going on. The heroes ended up doing menial chores for the converts such as oiling the door hinges (a perilous task for mice) and scrubbing the floors. Eventually, they met a merchant mouse who was giving up all his earthly possessions to be redeemed by the cult leader Goldenfur.

The heroes convinced him not to part with his belongings so quickly and decided to check out the Bucket after, where mice had been bathing. There, Beedlebard the Beetle fell into the bucket and go the Mellow condition. I gave the player the condition card (which I love, they're so useful), and they decided to get out of the bucket as fast as possible, before they all got Mellow-ed and became converts themselves.

As the day ended, I found the tension to have begun to lower as the players realized that they had no idea where to begin finding Olive. They ended up asking around a lot, and I started nudging them towards checking out the hole in the back wall to get things going again.

Part 2 - Sabrina the Cat Witch

As the tension and focus of the players began to dwindle because of the lack of things happening, I had one mouse furtively whisper to them about the hole in the back wall, mentioning that Goldenfur had been going there at night, for reasons no one knew. This piqued the players' interest back up again, and they went to check it out.

Past the wall, the mice made their way into a thick rose bush. I described the roses as blood red, and the treasure as being amongst the piles of little mouse clothes. These little bits of detail worked well in setting the mood, and got the players investigating with caution.

Inside the rose bush, the mice found another mouse named Milaster (who was searching for his sister Heloise!) and a spell for Darkness amongst the treasure. They also found a cat witch which really struck fear into their hearts.

I ended up using Milaster as a sort of DMPC/GMPC for the party since there were only two of them. In mousy fashion, he thought himself a daring adventurer despite not being one, and wielded a mighty sewing needle rapier. Together, the three of them explored the rose bush some more, snuck past the sleeping cat, and formulated a plan, now suspecting that Goldenfur and the cat witch were working together.

Part 3 - Drama, Action, Cliffhanger!

The three mice continued to explore the Chapel, eventually deciding to meet with Goldenfur himself (along with the rich pilgrim they had talked to earlier) about going on a mission trip. Throughout the adventure so far, I had explained away the disappearing mice as having "gone on a mission trip" and having never returned. The party decided to figure out what was going on by joining one such "mission trip" to see what Goldenfur planned to do to them.

Before going however, the Beetle Herder wanted to get a quick look on what was up on the roof - having seen it on the map and hearing about it from some of the other mice. I honestly had no idea what to say when that happened, so I just ran with what first came to mind. After tricking a convent to let them oil the door hinges (and then climb onto the roof using the same rope ladder needed to reach the hinges), one of the heroes managed to get a peak over the top. What they saw was a trio of mice, one of whom was Olive, tied to a stake on the roof, while mice in armor and with mercenary banners stood watch. To dissolve suspicion, they quickly got down and laughed it off (good roleplaying and a successful WIL save), and then relayed the info to the party.

The three of them (including Milaster) decided to continue with the mission trip plan to figure out the truth and escape.

The (now four, including the rich pilgrim) mice met with Goldenfur at the arms of the statue, and then took another rope ladder up to the roof where a pair of apostles waited, along with the guards and captives they had seen earlier. The guards quickly got them cornered, as Goldenfur monologued his evil villain plan of feeding the mice to Sabrina the Cat Witch in exchange for magic powers.

Aaaand that's where we left off. We ran out of time (the venue we were at had to close), leaving us at a major cliffhanger as the party just realized the master plan, had found their friends Olive and Heloise, and were about to commence with their first ever Mausritter combat to get out safely.

 

Closing Thoughts

Having finished this adventure, cliffhanger aside, I would say that this is by far one of the best adventures and systems I have ever played.

Prep was insanely easy and required little to no effort on my part to get things ready for game day. The adventure had just enough storyline and visuals to get my brain working and provide me with enough for the session, while also not giving so much as to require me to summarize the lore in my prep. Overall, 11/10 prep.

Character creation was fast, fun, and thematic. Again, a stellar example of giving enough to provide for the session and not so much that it takes too long to understand.

Gameplay itself was amazingly quick and fun, like everything else from Mausritter. Combat was discouraged in favor of talking things out and sneaking around, and clever thinking was rewarded well. The inventory management system was very easy to use (at least until we had to clean up), and very fun to play with - forcing characters to make decisions about what equipment they'd bring where.

Final score: 10/10, one of my favorite adventures so far. Would definitely run again, and from what my players said, they really loved it and were desperate to continue the adventure and play more.

Compared to D&D it was faster, easier to prep and play, generally more fun (in my opinion), and gave the cute yet adventurous vibes we wanted from fantasy that D&D couldn't give.

Once I get back to my group in a few weeks, we'll try out another Mausritter adventure from the Adventure Collection - probably Fruit of the Orchard, Song of the Frogacle, or the Wizard of Arms and Armor.