Matt Herzberg 8/6/26 Matt Herzberg 8/6/26

Never Yeet A Herbalist — Shadowdark Dungeon Crawl | Actual Play, Pt. 4

A sun-scorched courtyard. A 20-foot bull of black onyx with thirty skulls threaded onto its horns like beads. A floor of cracked, chewed bones. And hoofprints leading to a door.

Matt Herzberg 7/30/26 Matt Herzberg 7/30/26

It Walked Like A Man — Shadowdark Dungeon Crawl | Actual Play, Pt. 3

The torch goes out. Something with hooves hunts these halls by sound. And the party's newest member smells faintly of pine.

Matt Herzberg 7/23/26 Matt Herzberg 7/23/26

The Trap at Maximum Trapness — Shadowdark Dungeon Crawl | Actual Play, Pt. 2

A bronze bull. A cracked wall. A body pinned between them — and a gem worth dying for still embedded in the statue's forehead.

Matt Herzberg 7/16/26 Matt Herzberg 7/16/26

Death Is on the Table — Our First Shadowdark Dungeon Crawl | Actual Play, Pt. 1

The Jaunty Mantis crew puts Shadowdark RPG to the test with a real dungeon crawl.

Matt Herzberg 7/9/26 Matt Herzberg 7/9/26

Troika! TTRPG: We Read It, We Played It, Here's the Truth — The Jaunty Mantis

We reviewed Troika! by Melsonian Arts Council once before — but we hadn't played it yet. Now we have. Does actually playing it change anything? (Yes. And no.)

Matt Herzberg 7/2/26 Matt Herzberg 7/2/26

What I Wouldn't Give For A Sausage | Troika! Ep 8 — The Jaunty Mantis

A bull-bodied hero eats twenty people's worth of fondant in one fistful, and asks for one thing: a sausage. They're illegal in Troika. He's offering money.

Matt Herzberg 6/25/26 Matt Herzberg 6/25/26

Roll To Ignore The Cats | Troika! Ep 7 — The Jaunty Mantis

Roll to ignore the cats. The tiger can tell you really want to pet it, so it's ignoring you harder.

Matt Herzberg 6/25/26 Matt Herzberg 6/25/26

The Goose Grease Goblin | Troika! Ep 6 — The Jaunty Mantis

Gormer pulls a gas mask out of the door in his forehead. Moth's fashion sense becomes an Art Nouveau gas filter. A small egg-shaped man hustles them out of eleven silver.

Matt Herzberg 6/9/26 Matt Herzberg 6/9/26

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.

Matt Herzberg 6/2/26 Matt Herzberg 6/2/26

Owls of Floor One | Troika! Ep 4 — The Jaunty Mantis Actual Play

Moth picks a fight with an owl.

Matt Herzberg 5/26/26 Matt Herzberg 5/26/26

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.

Matt Herzberg 5/19/26 Matt Herzberg 5/19/26

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.

Matt Herzberg 5/12/26 Matt Herzberg 5/12/26

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.