Streamlined Mice & Mystics Rules

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</style>

# Streamlined Mice & Mystics

## 👋 Overview
The following rules intend to make the play experience of Mice & Mystics smoother and more narrative, reduce the amount of dice rolling and meta-gaming, and make the game more interesting and enjoyable for all players.

| Quick Summary |
|:-----|
| Don't roll for movement or overkill (min of 1 defence). |
| Only 1 cheese on minion rolls and none on the last kill. |
| Mice can only *search* (roll lore value) in special spaces. |
| Ranged minions flee and *elite rats* have a bow *and* knife. |
| Play chapters to completion, ignoring the *hourglass*. |
| Mice pool leftover cheese, trade between chapters, and can take 1 item, 1 equipment and all tricks onwards. |
| Wait your turn to strategise and stretch when restless! |

## 🐭️ The Rules

### Don't Roll for Movement
Instead of rolling dice to move, use the following rules.

- **Mice** can move up to their *move value* +1. When using the *scurry* action, roll a die and add the number to your *move value* as normal.
- **Minions** can move up to 2 spaces. *Cockroaches* and *spiders* can move up to 3 spaces.
- **Minions with names** roll the movement die as normal (*Captain Vurst*, *Skitter-Clack*, and so on).
- **Large minions** push smaller minions aside into adjacent spaces in their attempt to get to the mice, stopping at the tile adjacent to their mousey target.

In scenarios where a certain number or symbol on the die bears consequences (such as in the Courtyard with the *old crow*), roll as many dice as the mouse's *move value*. The mouse avoids the negative result if a star (\*) is rolled.
<br><br>
`This helps to speed up the game by removing the requirement of rolling every single time any character moves. It also adds some flavour to large minion movement, potentially making battles a bit more interesting as large minions become a bit more dangerous and chaotic.`

### Don't Roll for Overkill
If an attack has enough hits to defeat a character, don't roll defence. Instead, automatically defeat the minion or capture the mouse.
<br><br>
`This has the effect of reducing the overall number of pieces of cheese added to the cheese wheel due to fewer defence rolls on behalf of enemies. It also balances out **Don't Roll for Movement** and **Mice Must Search in Special Places**, which both tend to increase it due to tactical searching and taking longer to reach exploration spaces to exit a tile.`

\columnbreak

### Roll at Least 1 Defence Die
The number of defence dice a character rolls cannot be reduced below one.
<br><br>
`Surely a character would still be able to defend or dodge out of the way—at least a little bit—even if they are hit with some spell or ability. This makes it so.`

### Minions Only Add 1 Cheese
When you are attacking or defending with a minion and roll one or more pieces of cheese, only add a single piece of cheese to the *cheese wheel* regardless of the amount rolled.
<br><br>
`This reduces cheese generation and the number of surges, effectively making the game easier.`

### No Cheese on Last Defeat
Don't add a piece of cheese to the *cheese wheel* when the mouse lowest on the *initiative track* slays the last minion on a tile.
<br><br>
`This delays cheese generation and gives the mice more time to search a tile. It also discourages players from keeping minions alive just so another piece of cheese isn't added to the *cheese wheel*.`

### Search With Lore (roll \*)
Instead of rolling a single die to search, roll a number of dice equal to the searching mouse's *lore value*. The mouse succeeds in finding an item if a star (\*) is rolled.
<br><br>
`This tries to make searching more enjoyable by allowing players to roll more dice (depending on their mouse's *lore value*). It generally makes it more a bit more likely that mouse will find something if they perform a *search*.`

### Search in Special Spaces
Mice may only search in spaces that have footprints, are water spaces or feature interesting drawings (such as chests, mushrooms, crystals, tables, King Andon's bed etc.).
<br><br>
`This balances the **No Cheese On Last Minion Kill** rule—the ease of searching is made a bit more difficult by forcing mice to move to a certain space to search it. It also makes sense narratively, and adds to the game's theme by drawing attention to the beautiful art on each tile.`

### Ranged Minions Run Away
Ranged minions always move as far away as they can from mice while still keeping line-of-sight to at least one mouse.
<br><br>
`This adds additional flavour to ranged minions, and makes combat more interesting.`

<div class='footnote'>Streamlined Mice & Mystics – by <a href="https://allmylinks.com/raspilicious">Raspilicious</a></div>

\pagebreakNum

### Elite Rats Get Knife & Bow
*Elite rats* are now armed with a knife as well as their bow. When an *elite rat* attacks a mouse that is adjacent or on the same space as them, they perform a melee attack with 1 less attack dice than normal. They can also now move like both melee and ranged minions. Flip a coin to decide how they move on their turn: as a melee or ranged minion.
<br><br>
`This adds additional flavour to elite rats, and makes combat more interesting.`

### Play Past The Hourglass
You always play a chapter to completion. This means the *hourglass* can move beyond the *The End* indicator. When you reach the objective, look at the position of the *hourglass*.
- Any space before the end gives you +1 point.
- Any space beyond the end gives you -1 point.

Keep a running score until the end of the storybook and see how well you fared!
<br><br>
`This removes the time-loss condition (which makes the game easier), while still encouraging players to play well. Keeping track of your 'score' will mean that you will see how well you can do throughout a campaign.`

### Pool all Leftover Cheese
At the end of a chapter, the party pools leftover cheese for mice to level up. Each mouse can only level up once in this way between chapters.
<br><br>
`This helps to avoid trying to keep a 'window' (deliberately leaving that last roach alive) in which to use your cheese before triggering the chapter end condition when mice have many pieces of cheese at the end of a chapter.`

### Trade Between Chapters
Mice can freely trade items amongst themselves between chapters, provided they are in the same group if the story has split them up.
<br><br>
`This gives players some freedom to share items with each other, and it makes sure that they don't have to discard a card if they don't want it but didn't get a chance to trade earlier on.`

### Keep 1 Item & 1 Equipment
All tricks, 1 piece of equipment, and 1 item may be kept from chapter to chapter. A piece of equipment is something that can be 'equipped' in a mouse's hand, head, or chest slot.
<br><br>
`This allows players to keep one more search card (either an item or a piece of equipment) between chapters, making the game a bit easier (because you keep more items). It also lets players personalise their favourite mouse a bit more.`

\columnbreak

### Plan on Your Own Turn
Players are allowed to talk strategy as long as it's on their own turn and is kept brief. Other talk isn't discouraged but try not to let it distract too much from the game!
<br><br>
`This helps to prevent players from having lengthy strategic discussions in the middle of a game. It keeps the game flowing while still allowing for some brief tactical call-outs if needed.`

### Restless? Take a Break!
If you're feeling restless, say so and take a break. (:
<br><br>
`We all burn out every now and then. This is here to remind players to take a break if they are getting tired. By doing so, everyone will come back to the game refreshed and ready to mouse around!`

## 📜 Change Log
- v1.0: Created the first version.
- v1.1: Reformatted and tidied up the whole document, and added a section giving some insight into why you might want to use these rules, and how they could change the gameplay.
- v1.2: Added useful asset section, currently containing a guide to choosing an ability for your mouse when you gain a level.
- v1.3: Fixed a few spelling and grammar errors.
- v1.4: Moved document to GM Binder and made it fancy!

## ⭐ Useful Assets
##### Character Ability Comparisons
[Here](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/3376487/throwing8smokes?size=original) is a very useful table to help you work out which ability you should learn when you level up.

## 💖 Credits
The rules above have been inspired by and built upon the following resources, each of which has been tested and played with over many games.

Thank you—I couldn't have done this without you all!

| Resource | Author |
|:-----------------|:-------|
| [Comprehensive Quick-Start Guide for New Players](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1750209/comprehensive-quick-start-guide-new-players-check)  | Jeremy "throwing8smokes" |
| [Compilation of ALL house rules ever + Campaign Rules](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1716176/compilation-all-house-rules-ever-campaign-rules)  | Jeremy "throwing8smokes" |
| [House Rules (by Falenthal)](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1639856/house-rules-falenthal) | Falenthal Greenleaf "Falenthal" |
| [13 house rules by Teeka - for a slightly harder game / some campaign rules](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1704826/13-house-rules-teeka-slightly-harder-game-some-cam) | Teeka "Teeka" |
| [some house rule ideas to make things easier](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1117839/some-house-rule-ideas-make-things-easier) | evil bob "evilbob65535" |
| [My House Rules](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2053556/my-house-rules) | Tyler Lloyd "tlloyd" |
| [Ability and Search cards next campaign](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1941821/ability-and-search-cards-next-campaign) | Henrique Riberio "henriquedsr989" |
| [Modern Clean Theme](https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LwYuYE3m6hq4V-I3Rpp) for GM Binder | /u/iveld |

- Raspilicious

<div class='pageNumber'>2</div>
<div class='footnote'>Streamlined Mice & Mystics – by <a href="https://allmylinks.com/raspilicious">Raspilicious</a></div>