I always playtest the settings alone, as they are conceived originally. This time, I played along with my partner twice. This was her first time playing Mausritter, and she had little experience with TTRPGs.

Playing in duet mode

I had heard about using solo rules for playing GM-less, but I didn’t try it until then. I, knowing the system (both Mausritter and A Deck of Dungeons & Treasures), ran the session while she could focus on the game mechanics and the roleplaying. We used Mathew Morris’ Einzelmaus, and I was also in charge of interpreting the oracle results. All the nested systems were intimidating enough for a beginner player, and dealing with an oracle is daunting for a first timer.

The two games went well and were fun. I highly recommend playing duet with a solo system, but at least one player needs previous experience interpreting oracle answers. However, it takes only one session for a newbie to grow the confidence to start making suggestions.

Playing with a chemistry teacher

I was eager to playtest with her because she knows how a lab works, and it paid off. During our first run, we came across a trap consisting of an ethyl alcohol puddle. If you cross it with a fire source, it will ignite and damage you.

As she pointed out, ethyl alcohol is very volatile, and we just had to wait for the puddle to evaporate. That was not the idea behind this trap, and it turned up to be a very simple one. So I changed it so that in the final version, it’s a bottle creating the puddle as it evaporates.

Lateral thinking

As she wasn’t intoxicated by the TTRPG tropes of getting treasure or experience points, she was so focused on the character’s goals that she rejected the idea of risking ourselves to get some loot. The good thing about this is that you can get out-of-the-box ideas when you’re not familiar with a field.

In the first run, we left a useful spell, although I insisted on getting it. It was crystallized, but a beaker with acid was nearby. It was a simple puzzle, but we kept advancing. However, two rooms later, we encountered the dreaded Abomination. Fighting was too risky, and going around it was impossible. She came up with the plan: we went back, got the acid, and made the Abomination step on an acid puddle. The plan worked! Using a puzzle as a weapon was genius, and didn’t occur to me, the mind behind all those elements.

In the second run, I convinced her to go after the treasure twice. First, she lost a key part of her character equipment. Secondly, we engage in a fairly easy fight that turned against us… I guess she was right about leaving the treasure behind.

The return of Mausnesium

Her second character was named Mausnesium (a name only a chemistry teacher could make up). A month later, she joined my siblings’ Mausritter party right when they were about to face Honey in the Rafters.

This wasn’t planned at all: the party had to stop in a settlement before going to the cursed sunflower. The settlement, randomly made with tables, was inhabited by lab escapees. There wasn’t a better place to meet Mausnesium!

While the party’s interest in the cursed sunflower was merely economic, Mausnesium’s hook was rescuing Sulfurite, his partner in the lab escape (my character during the playtest). She was convinced to join the sugar cult that worships the sunflower.

I was glad to see how Escape from the Lab was proven as a good one-shot, as well as giving a new character momentum to start a life of adventures.