The Jaunty Mantis TTRPG Podcast
Matt Herzberg & Jesse Sauer
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About This Podcast
Three expert GMs explore the craft of tabletop roleplaying—why rules feel good, why scenes work, and how stories land. Through casual conversation, creative experiments, and honest breakdowns, this podcast celebrates what makes the hobby special and helps you run better games.
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Recent Episodes
The Demonic Water & The Wizard's Curse | Troika! Ep 5 — The Jaunty Mantis
Darlo rolls double sixes. The oops table opens. From there, things only get worse. Welcome to The Jaunty Mantis — a podcast of creative questions for curious gamers. This is Part 5 of our Troika!…
Owls of Floor One | Troika! Ep 4 — The Jaunty Mantis Actual Play
Moth picks a fight with an owl. Everyone else suffers the consequences. Plus: Darlo discovers his new favorite hobby, Gormer's combat strategy is "wave knife around hopefully," and the staircase…
Not Ominous At All | Troika! Ep 3 — The Jaunty Mantis Actual Play
A staircase mural of beaked figures, serrated keys, and a horde of screaming demons. Two knowledge rolls. Both fail. The party concludes everything is fine. Spoiler: it is not.Episode 3 of our…
The Pickled Diplomat | Troika! Ep 2 — The Jaunty Mantis Actual Play
Darlo bonds with his new roommates the only way he can: by demanding the most inedible pickled vegetable on the menu and sharing it with them. Plus: a herbal beverage best described as "Jagermeister,…
Three Strangers, One Hotel Room | Troika! Ep 1 — The Jaunty Mantis Actual Play
A door-wizard with disastrous luck, a death-priest who'd rather be elsewhere, and a swamp-mystic with a mission walk into a hotel. It's the only room left. They're sharing it. Episode 1 of our…
Mothership RPG Review
We played a few sessions of Mothership and then immediately gathered around the microphone like a group of nervous space janitors who just opened the wrong airlock. In this episode of the Jaunty…
Mothership RPG Actual Play | Part 2 | Sci-Fi Horror TTRPG
Welcome to the Jaunty Mantis Mothership RPG Actual Play series! This is Part 2 and the chilling conclusion. Mothership is a sci-fi horror tabletop roleplaying game focused on survival, panic, and…
JM133 - Mothership Actual Play with Rich Ranallo from Signal Interruption | Part 1
Rich Ranallo of Signal Interruption drops in to run a series of Mothership sessions based on an adventure he’s bringing to publication.
JM132 -Terrain: The Third Army
Three expert GMs explore the craft of tabletop roleplaying—why rules feel good, why scenes work, and how stories land. Through casual conversation, creative experiments, and honest breakdowns, this…
JM131 - Where and how do we prep for games? Software, setting, stimulants.
Three expert GMs explore the craft of tabletop roleplaying—why rules feel good, why scenes work, and how stories land. Through casual conversation, creative experiments, and honest breakdowns, this…
JM130 - Danger & Death
Death and danger aren’t just threats in Dungeons & Dragons—they’re what give stories weight. In this episode of Jaunty Mantis, the gang digs into why real risk matters at the table, how rules and…
JM129 - Always Split the Party? | GM Advice for Better RPG Storytelling
Should you really never split the party? In this episode of Jaunty Mantis, Jesse and Chris dig into one of tabletop RPG’s oldest rules of thumb—and turn it on its head. From D&D and Vampire to…
JM128 - Our Tabletop Gaming Goals for 2026
What do healthy, fun, and sustainable tabletop gaming goals actually look like in 2026? Jaunty Mantis here, this week we sit down to talk about our personal and shared TTRPG goals for the year…
JM127 - Session endings: are yours satisfying?
Ending a tabletop RPG session can feel awkward, rushed, or flat—even when the rest of the game was great. So how should a session end? In this episode of The Jaunty Mantis, we unpack why session…
JM126 - What’s the Point of Roleplaying Games? | Power, Story, Violence & Community
Why do we play tabletop roleplaying games? In this episode of Jaunty Mantis, we dive deep into the philosophy of RPGs—exploring power fantasy, collaborative storytelling, violence as conversation,…
JM125 - Don’t Cancel the Game: Creative Fixes for Missing Players
What happens when a player can’t make it—and the story needs them? In this episode of Jaunty Mantis, Jesse, Matty, and Chris tackle one of tabletop gaming’s most frustrating problems: last-minute…
JM124 - Are Serious TTRPG Campaigns Even Possible? Humor, Emotion & Storytelling in RPGs
Can a tabletop RPG ever be fully serious — or is humor baked into the DNA of playing with your friends?In this episode of Jaunty Mantis, Jesse, Matty, and Chris dive into a surprisingly complex…
JM123 - Traveller RPG Character Creation
Cybernetic heartbreak, social disasters, noble nepo babies, improvised space romance, mishaps that should have been fatal, and the wild joy of letting dice determine your fate. The Jaunty Mantis crew…
JM122 - The Open Table Manifesto from The Alexandrian
Can an open table completely change the way you run RPGs? The Jaunty Mantis crew dives into The Alexandrian’s Open Table Manifesto to explore how it reshapes campaigns, players, and prep. In this…
JM121 - Draw Steel: Our Messy Review of an Awesomely Bloated RPG
Jaunty Mantis here — and today we’re tackling a massive 96 oz steak of an RPG. We read the entire Draw Steel book so you don’t have to. Is it genius? Is it too much? Let’s find out. Welcome back to…
Frequently Asked Questions
The Jaunty Mantis TTRPG Podcast has published 140 episodes since July 2023, covering topics in Games, Hobbies.
The Jaunty Mantis TTRPG Podcast is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 53m.
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