Mausritter Month Reaches Big Crowdfunding Goals through Little Heroes

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Today, we’re following up on some earlier reporting we did on Backerkit with an interview with the team behind Mausritter Month. Mausritter, for those unfamiliar, is a rules-light fantasy TTRPG published in 2020 where you’re a little mouse adventuring in a vast world. Think Redwall or Beatrix Potter as inspiration. The game was made through a three-way partnership between Losing Games, Games Omnivorous and Exalted Funeral.

It’s also the focus of Mausritter Month, a crowdfunding event on Backerkit that ran from Nov. 4 to Dec. 4, 2025, where creators partner with Mausritter’s publisher to crowdfund multiple games. Sixteen publishers submitted projects for consideration and raised more than $280,000 in total. As of the publishing of this story, backers will have until the evening of Dec. 5 to back any projects they enjoy.

TTRPG Insider sat down with Mausritter co-creator and designer Andre Novoa to talk about the crowdfunding project and what the collaborative effort was like.

What's the story behind Mausritter Month? Why run a large crowdfunding campaign in the way you did?

Mausritter Month actually began when BackerKit reached out to us about doing a big, curated event—similar to what Mothership did the year before. We loved the idea immediately. The Mausritter community is incredibly active and creative, and we’d been wanting to find a way to celebrate that energy in a coordinated way. We were also deep into development on Junk City, which made for perfect timing. Rather than releasing it on its own, we thought: why not bring together a whole slate of third-party creators and launch everything as one big moment? It let us highlight the breadth of what people are making for Mausritter, and it gave the community a focal event to rally around. Running it as a large, unified crowdfunding campaign meant everyone benefited from shared momentum, cross-promotion, and a sense of participating in something bigger than a single project.

What inspired Junk City? How does that fit into Mausritter's playstyle or storytelling?

We often describe Mausritter as 70% Beatrix Potter, 30% Heavy Metal – which means “cute and whimsical” on the surface, but with a darker, OSR-inflected edge underneath. The game can be very deadly if not approached with player cleverness and caution, just like any classic OSR game. As the third-party community grew – and boy did it grow! – the overall tone naturally drifted toward the adorable end of the spectrum.

Winning the ENNIE for Best Family Game in 2021 nudged things further in that direction. And we absolutely endorse this; it’s totally fine. Works often grow beyond their creators, and when that happens, it’s usually a sign of a healthy, thriving community.

But Junk City was our chance to explore the grittier part of the game’s DNA, a return to the roots of what Mausritter originally carried in its core. Its “neo-noir, post-magic-catastrophe” tone brings back that slightly harsher, stranger, more dangerous version of the setting. It still carries plenty of the whimsy that defines Mausritter. Still, now it sits on top of a darker undertone: a city where it’s always raining, always “night” in a sense, always buzzing with whispers, schemes, and shadows that move on their own, where every faction is criminal, brutal, and uncompromising. It’s a place where survival feels earned, and where the most minor victories can feel monumental. Precisely the kind of tension that makes Mausritter, err.... Mausritter.

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What was the process like for selecting who to work with on this project? What criteria were used?

We put out an open call for submissions and were blown away by the response. We received far more pitches than we could include. And the quality was outstanding! We knew we had to cap the lineup at sixteen, more or less. More than that and coordination would have become impossible.

Selection ultimately came down to a few key factors: choosing creators already deeply involved in the Mausritter community, projects with standout or unusual pitches, creators with proven crowdfunding experience, and maintaining a broad range of tones, themes, formats, genres, and styles. Even with those criteria in place, choosing was still one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make, because the community delivered an incredible batch of ideas.

What has public reception been like to this? What sort of collaborations were there between the creators involved?

The response exceeded all expectations. The community embraced the idea of a unified month-long celebration, and the campaign's scale made it feel like a genuine event for the Mausritter ecosystem. One of the biggest surprises was just how much people loved the wooden mouse meeples, far more than we ever thought! Over 500 backers backed seven or more projects because of how popular the meeples became. Each meeple represented one of the projects in the event. They became a kind of mascot for the entire event.

Public reception has been super positive. People loved discovering new creators, tones, and playstyles in the world of Mausritter. And we love to see where people take the game, what they want to do it. And because everyone launched together, creators naturally supported one another, sharing audiences, boosting each other’s projects, and helping reinforce the idea that this wasn’t sixteen isolated campaigns, but a single, coordinated celebration of a game that everyone loves.

There were also cool collaborations woven into the event. On our side, Junk City featured a special cross-collab with Mothership, timed to run alongside Mothership Month, which was happening at the same time. Both communities have grown up next to each other, with overlapping design DNA and even overlapping creators, so it felt natural to riff off each other and celebrate together. We love Mothership, and Mothership loves us. It’s a reciprocal relationship that made the cross-event energy feel genuine.

And the third-party creators didn’t hold back either. Several of them teamed up for their own crossovers: The Baron’s Grip linked up with Hell in a Hog Waller to expand both of their adventures, and Feathertail Falls paired with Mausolympics to add a new “flying sport” to the Olympics mini games. These weren’t things we mandated, creators just saw an opportunity to amplify each other, and they went for it. All of that collaboration made Mausritter Month feel alive in a way no single project ever could.

What's next? Will this be hosted again next year? Or is it a one-off?

First, we’re going to rest! Pulling off something at this scale takes a lot out of you. After that, we’ll see. We’ve talked about a few possible future directions, including the idea of taking the Mausritter IP into new formats—such as a town-building board game where players manage a mouse settlement while brave explorers bring back resources from the giant human world.

As for another Mausritter Month, nothing is set in stone yet. It could return, but even if it’s a one-off, we’re thrilled with how this first event turned out.

Thanks to Andre for chatting with us!

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].