Mauspirat - Early Access / Playtest (Patreon)

Long ago, long before you were born, when my whiskers were still black and my coat had the luster of youth, two monsters sailed into the bay. They were ships. Huge ships with sails that blotted out the moon. Locked in battle they were. The red banner of captain Blackbird being chased by Admiral Calico’s guns. The air was thick with smoke, the ringing of the cannons, and the dying screams of mice and men.

Then, sudden and deafening silence. Blackbirds’ dread ship—and all of his plundered riches—lost to the depths and Calico’s Man-O-War dashed on the rocks. 

The Bay’s been a more dangerous place ever since... More interesting. Oh, yes. Much more interesting. You be careful out there. I can still see the pink in your coats so take it from ol’ Tommy Two-Legs; There’s pips to be made on the seas. If you’ve got the claws for it...

Download Early Release Playtest Rules

What is Mauspirat?

Mauspirat is a swashbuckling expansion for Mausritter! This setting guide helps game masters (GMs) build exciting adventures within the world of Whisker Bay, whether that means leading daring raids against the East Rodentia Company, escaping the clutches of Admiral Calico, or searching for the lost pips of Captain Blackbird himself!

Brought to you by Marshall Short (https://printableheroes.com/) and Jack Cahan (https://www.lorelock.co/), this setting guide provides everything you need to run a daring adventure on the high cheese!  

This is just the beginning! Follow this project for more ya bilgerats!

Acknowledgments

Our thanks to the following people and games without whom Mauspirat would not exist.

Issac Williams, Maisa Nammari, Troy Hewitt, Issac Minarik, Eric Beppler, Adam Kelley, Seth Lindblom, and Andrew Reisdorph.

PirateBorg by Luke Stratton, Into the Odd by Chris McDowall, and Dreadnaught by Alex Beisel and Nicholas Ross

Mauspirat is an independent production by Lorelock Ltd. and is not affiliated with Losing Games. It is published under the Mausritter Third Party License. Mausritter is copyright Losing Games.

What is Mausritter?

Mausritter is an ENNIE Gold Winning, rules-light tabletop RPG, developed by Losing Games in collaboration with Games Omnivorous, and published by Exalted Funeral.

Take on the role of brave mice adventuring in a huge, dangerous world. Simple mechanics make it easy to learn and quick to play, and the setting offers a mix of whimsy and peril. Think tiny swords, lost magic, and terrifying creatures.

Mausritter features a unique inventory system that uses physical item cards, making gear management tactile and intuitive. It's perfect for kids, newcomers, and seasoned players alike.

You can learn how to play (for free) by checking out the online rules here: https://mausritter.com/srd

Why Mausritter, Why Mauspirat?

Hey Everyone! Marshall here, I realize this is a bit different then what folks normally expect to get from Printable Heroes so I wanted to take a moment walk through my interest in Mausritter as a system and Mauspirat as a fun side project.

Generally I always want to be able to work on fun things that interest me, but with anything I make I feel like it's only right that I make it available to my Patreon community who makes everything I do possible.

I got into Mausritter on the recommendation of a friend and I found the system and setting to be a very charming break from the more involved and complex games of D&D that'd I usually run.

There's a unique and enjoyable inventory system (anyone who's ever played a Diablo game will immediately recognize it) where items are individual tokens with their own neat artwork and navigating your inventory becomes it's own mini game. I'm a sucker for art that serves a tangible/useable function and anytime i get to pick up a cool mini or token and move it around on a tabletop my brain triggers a hit of dopamine :D

The way Mausritter handles locations/encounters as their own little self contained pamphlets makes for a system that is incredibly modular and provides a lovely template for Game Masters to get creative and build out their own worlds. Anything that encourages folks to get creative and make things is super exciting to me and makes me want to support it.

While it's a popular game in its own right it's still pretty small and I see so much room for the community to grow and I'd love to throw a bit of my energy and art towards helping folks discover the game and get into it.

As for Mauspirat as a project, it all started with the official Mausritter Month that the Mausritter team sponsored this last November. It served as a wonderful excuse for Jack and I to work on a project together.

Jack brings a wealth of game writing/publishing experience along with a career of type/image layout for products, books, and games - which is wonderful for someone like me who loves making art for games but gets horribly bogged down trying to write coherent words/laying out legible pages.

Originally we just planned to do a rule set and the necessary accessories to run naval combat in Mausritter, but as we got into it we quickly realized we were having so much fun that we plan to continue the project, fleshing out the locations and creatures that make up Whisker Bay.

Because of the modular nature of the world building it's something we can steadily chip away at between all of our regular Patreon work.

Our plan is to continue to flesh out the rules (refine and polish, add ship cargo/trading, treasure hunts, etc) and accessories (on my end there's a lot more items and characters I'm looking forward to drawing, as well as ship tokens and some naval battle maps) and then move on to building out the world of Whisker Bay with locations, creatures, quests, fun new items, maps, etc. then release them for Patrons as we go, and eventually somewhere down the road kickstart an actual publish book with all of the tokens and printouts pre-printed and bundled up.

For me personally this kind of side project is a wonderfully low stakes way for me to play around with art styles and formats I don't normally get to, to collaborate with another talented creator, and to dip my toe into game design a bit. All of which are things that can/will evolve to benefit my future work with Printable Heroes.

Anyhow, the initial setting rules are attached below and we'll follow up with new versions for Patrons as we finish them.

Since this isn't the typical kind of art and/or files I release for Printable Heroes I'm keeping it off of the website catalog for now. I'll work with Alex to figure out the best way to support it on the site down the road as it makes sense to.

Anyways, I'd love to hear feedback/thoughts and I hope this kind of thing is something folks will enjoy seeing from time-to-time!

Cheers!-Marshall