Making My Adventure Location for Mausritter Part 1
The Writing
A great pale menace hunting silently through the night, an old dead stump hiding dark secrets, a hive pushing their industrious pursuits to the limits, and numerous other perils thrive in the forgotten Bone Meadow where the hardy mice of The Thickett call home.
I must have seen the call for entries either here on Substack or over on Bluesky. It was an announcement for a Mausritter game jam over on Itch.io HERE; the directions were thorough for what ManaDawn Tabletop Games was wanting. They had developed a 20-or-so hex grid of realistic locations in which we were to build out an adventure location. They gave great specifics for the dimensions, margins and bleed. I had everything I needed except a solid idea.
For those unaware, Mausritter (Mouse-rit-er or “Mouse Knight” in German) is an exceedingly simple yet elegant tabletop roleplaying game. You and friend become small mice in a large and dangerous world. Magic and bravery can propel your character to heroism or spell their doom. The rules are less than 100 pages and a lot of that is beautiful artwork. For more information or to try the game itself (it’s pay what you want), check out Mausritter by Losing Games HERE.
I started by picking a few locations and even generating my own based on rules from the Mausritter rule book. These ideas were simple. One or two lines with a quick conflict. From this I had 4 ideas. I didn’t want to spend too long on this step of the process because the elegance of Mausritter (and other Old-School style games) is their brevity. There’s just enough for the players to fill in the blanks in their imaginations.
Some interesting ideas here, but I really liked the idea of an owl- one that can strike silently, swiftly and has a stark, terrifying appearance. The white barn owl with it’s alien like facial features really stuck out to me. My first idea would be the one I go with, but you’ll see in the final adventure how notions from others informed the many threats I placed throughout.
Looking through their generated locations I had ideas for settlements come easily. Industrious mice can make a home anywhere. However, this prompt was specifically for and adventure location and I really wanted to give people something fun in the 6 pages I had allotted. One location stuck out to me- The Bone Meadow.
From the map generated by ManaDawn, the Bone Meadow is a “Massive meadow full of wild flowers and bees,” and “Carcasses of a herd of buffalo, long dead…”
How I arrived at an owl being the antagonist first is beyond me. I think I liked the idea of stark white bones being a reminder or death’s looming presence, and what would be a great predator for mice in such a setting? Something that can strike silently, swiftly and has a stark, terrifying appearance- that’s right, a snake.
Uh oh, now I have two antagonist ideas. But what if they were each antagonists of each other. From this idea, the hidden relationships within the Bone Meadow began to develop. I began writing. Vacationing in chilly Colorado I took my coffee shop time very seriously and wrote way more than space would allow. I think this is naturally how I write. Like a true yapper lol.
However, I had to remind myself… BREVITY. Distill those big ideas to their core and that’s what will make it in.
If you’ve not tried doing this yet, I encourage you to do so with your own writing.
Rewriting paths you’ve already tread can be a great exercise and will help when coming up with the copywriting of your work.
Having decided on a location and an antagonist or two I set about drafting the locations within this large meadow. Mostly based on where the key figures would live. The mice in a thicket of wild roses, the owl in a tall, defensible tree, and the snake deep underground- indicative of their personalities.
As mentioned before, I wrote quite a bit for a small amount of space. The art would be important as well so there would need to be just enough space for it to be impactful. I had my work cut out for me, but I felt I needed to get all the big writing done first before I labored over narrowing things down.
Thinking about what the sample adventure locations had to offer, along ideas of what I wanted to see, I decided on a short list of elements I would need to put into the final package.
The Story. A blurb, the small motivations, descriptions and overall meta narrative.
The Encounters. Based on ideas from the story, what can randomly happen here.
The Items. Based on the encounters, what interesting objects could exist here.
The Stats. Players will need to know what creatures can do which actions.
The Hooks. Based loosely on story, what draws the mice to this perilous place?
The Art. Striking visuals to get players’ minds thrumming.
The Design. How am I going to lay 1-6 out to be cohesive and not overwhelming?
Sometimes I think I’m a glutton for punishment, but them I realize I’m having fun doing all this. I’m using every bit of my creativity and knowledge to produce something for myself for once. Damn does it feel good.
More in part 2, coming soon.
Thank you for reading so far on this journey. This would not be my first adventure ever written, but it would be the first that I’ve gone through the pains to make a finished product. Something more than a word document with a cool scenario.
This was a labor of love and by talking over the process I hope to inspire others to do the same. Honestly, watching other indie devs pump out unique things gave me a lot of courage. Courage and a (maybe lofty) attitude of “pssshh I can do that!”
If you’ll allow a more personal note- My past few years after moving from Houston, Texas to Austin, TX have all been an upward trajectory. I went through college and attained a Bachelors of Fine Arts. I was recognized by my peers and I had a ton of talent. I just didn’t have the confidence in myself to do anything with it.
Roleplaying games, mainly D&D, as well as the Darksouls game series toiled on a younger me in 2016 to begin an 8 year transformation to where I am today. There is no ceiling for me so long as I push myself.
I encourage anyone who thinks they can’t do anything to dust themselves off and try again. Fail and try again. Learn and try again. Keep learning from your peers and idols. Keep trying again until you’re doing the damn thing.
After 1 year of writing on Substack I still have a lot to learn. I hope I can share it all with you, my readers.
Thank you for your support.
P.s. I’m working on lining up some more indie game reviews for 2025, bringing you more advice, and DIY’s for things like this post!
Bluesky: HERE
Itch.io: HERE
Email: HERE