Mausritter Month: Interview with Matthew Morris

In celebration of Mausritter Month, we talked to Matthew Morris of ManaDawn Tabletop Games about his favorite system, the release of Tomb of a Thousand Doors his most recent kickstarter, the Mausritter zine Bernpyle and what’s on the horizon for mouse-sized adventurers.

Hi Matt! Thanks for talking to us. Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Absolutely! Hey y’all, I’m Matt (or Matthew) and I run ManaDawn Tabletop Games—formerly ManaRampMatt. I got into TTRGP design in 2020 along with a lot of other really cool people. Mausritter was actually my onramp into the indie space. I have been a longtime D&D player and DM but in spring of 2020 I found Mausritter and the rest is history. I created and published my first zine in fall of 2020 and it was the fourth ever third-party Mausritter supplements. Since then I’ve released over 100 Mausritter supplement, ran three successful Kickstarter campaigns (one with the fine folks of Plus One Exp – bringing in over $100k), ran multiple Mausritter Game Jams, and I catalog and curate the Mausritter Library—a living list of nearly 1200 third-party products. I guess I love Mausritter. I also have created for OSE, Cairn, Bastards., and lots of other fun indie TTRPGs.

What drew you to Mausritter as your system of choice?

Well, it's a dark and violent story. I was writing a Redwall themed D&D 5e setting and was looking for inspiration, I stumbled on Mausritter. Excited, I opened the free PDF from itch.io and was confused, “this isn’t D&D?!” I thought and did nothing with it. Months later, after falling in love with Chris McDowall’s Into the Odd, I was looking out my office window and saw a cute little field mouse scurrying around—gathering bird seed; then, out of nowhere, a scrub jay dive-bombed it and a fight ensued… the mouse died. I thought to myself, that was metal—that would be a sweet setting for Into the Odd and then I remembered that free PDF from months ago. Isaac Williams had already created my dream setting! I’ve been a Mausritter-man ever since!

Tomb of a Thousand Doors is successfully crowdfunded, available for purchase, and already hitting tables around the world. What’s the feedback been like? What excites you most about the megadungeon?

Gosh, the feedback is overwhelming and exciting! I am so glad folks love it! This project has been in the making for nearly 3 years. Every May, I run a Mausritter Game Jam on itch and in 2022 I had a dream to create a megadungeon with content from 30+ Mausritter third-party creators. We ran the jam and made the dungeon. Fernando Salvaterra illustrated all the maps and Bruno Prosaiko came on to do the cover. Their art really brought it together. Honestly, what excites me most is this is 100% for the community by the community. It is our love letter to the hobby and the game we love. My table clocked over 100 hours in the Tomb, so I know there are endless stories to be told and thousands of tables!

You’ve been working on Mausritter content for a while now. Tell us a bit about Bernpyle and what it's like working with the community.

Yeah, Bernpyle was my first foray into the scene. I was releasing zines every-other-month for 2020-2021 and it was a blast. During that season I was able to network and build relationships with some amazing artists like Alex Damaceno and Felipe Faria who both did some commission work for me. At the one year mark I got ambitious and released an anthology called Bernpyle YEAR ONE in hardcover form. I ran a successful Kickstarter and partnered with Exalted Funeral for fulfillment, Isaac even wrote the forward! The community is fantastic and super supportive for sure. I have made many lifelong friends along the way!

What's next for you in the world of Mausritter?

Well, one of those friends, Hugh Lashbrooke (Ten Acre Games), and I are running a Patreon and releasing Mausritter content almost weekly. The two of us have teamed up for Mausritter Month for something huge: Rolling Coast: An Amusement Park Campaign Setting for Mausritter. This is a 112-page, hardcover book packed with a complete hexcrawl, 20+ new creatures, 50+ items, 10+ new spells, 3 complete settlements, 10+ NPCs, 10 adventures, all in a beautifully illustrated book—but that’s not all. This book comes with a 68-page zine to expand the setting, custom character sheet pads, item cards, maps, standees, and dungeon tiles, all in a deluxe box set (produced by the same folks who make the Mausritter box set, The Estate adventure collection, and the ALL-NEW Junk City adventure collection). So yeah, we are stoked! After that, I am working on Bernpyle REVISITED, an expanded setting guide and adventure collection, coming Q2 of 2026.

What do you do for fun when you’re not creating mouse-sized content? Any games, books, or shows you’ve been into?

Heck yeah, I am a theology nerd, so I am always reading theological material. On top of that, I love Tolkien. I read The Silmarillion once a year (12 years in a row now). I love playing and running Yochai Gal’s Cairn and Goblin Archives’ Liminal Horror. These games are so good and so inspiring, and their creators, well, they are cool people! I play a lot of The One Ring 2e from Free League, too! My wife and I are British and Scandinavian Gritty Crime Drama TV fans, so that's what I’m watching.

Want more Mausritter? Check out the Mausritter Adventure Collection, Tomb of a Thousand Doors, Bernpyle, and everything in our Mausritter Month collection!