Countdown to Mothership

This isn't a review. It's more a collection of random thoughts.

I knew that I'd be running Mothership as soon as I finished reading it. The boxed set took the trip to Florida with me this summer. The Nostalgia Tour was on hiatus until schedules could come back into alignment. I should've used the time to prepare the next module, but I needed a change of pace. Alternating between fantasy and any other genre usually works for me. I intended to read and run FATE Core and Tachyon Squadron for our next game, but there's something about Mothership that appeals to me more.

Tuesday Night Games stuffed a decent amount of stuff in the Mothership boxed set. Photo doesn't include the patch, dice, and other doodads.

Opening Move

I'll be running Another Bug Hunt - the introductory adventure in the boxed set - as a one shot. It's written to present a taste of everything Mothership has to offer. I figure it's the best way to get a feel for the game.

Another Bug Hunt avoids most of my issues with published adventures. It gets high marks from me for organization, layout, and not wasting my time. I'll knock off a few points for the pages that use white or orange text on a dark background. Most of the book is fine, but those specific pages are hard on the eyes.

I am a little concerned with the bulletproof critters of this scenario. I know that Mothership isn't intended to be fair or balanced, but there's a gap between "life is tough, deal with it" and "dick move" which this might sail across. Then again, "bullets won't stop them" is a trope of sci-fi horror.


Down the Road

I've amassed a modest collection of Mothership adventures that we can play as one shots or as an episodic campaign of unconnected adventures. Once I feel I have a good grasp of the game, I'll try my hand at creating some adventures of my own. There's plenty of inspiration out there.


Launching a Campaign?

I have thoughts about a possible campaign. However, I have no plans to run one until that nebulous time known as later. Best to let my ideas cook while I get some experience with the game.

A Traveller-style, murder hobos for hire campaign can be run using Mothership with little or no modification. Just replace the nobles with corporate executives to make the setting more of a late stage capitalist interstellar hellscape. It would also be fairly straightforward to adapt Traveller adventures like Death Station to Mothership.

Other games that can be mined for inspiration include Star Frontiers and Ashen Stars. Something would need to be done with the playable aliens, but there are setting elements and adventures that could be adapted without too much effort.

That said, I'd likely go with a campaign of my own design. Salvagers who sometimes run cargo as space truckers to make ends meet sounds exciting. The Warden's Operation Manual discusses salvagers and space truckers as separate ideas for campaigns, but I have ideas for a mashup.

Screenshot from The Cycle Fronter by Yager Development. Image from The Cycle Frontier press kit.

Salvaging supposedly abandoned settlements might resemble the now dead Escape From Tarkov clone The Cycle Frontier. Going to distant worlds to explore overgrown structures hosting native critters while dealing with trigger happy competitors. Salvaging derelicts in space might look like Hardspace Shipbreaker. Cutting valuable bits out of obsolete ships while dealing with the dangers of depressurization, radiation, temperate extremes, substandard equipment, and the occasional ghost ship haunted by rogue AI. I'd add things like cultists who like privacy and a little cosmic horror for spice.

Cargo hauling would be blue collar space horror with a system that could fake a functioning economy so moving freight across interstellar distances makes some kind of sense. Of course, that cargo might not be what the manifest says it is. Or the temptation to increase profits by smuggling contraband might attract the wrong kind of attention.

Combining the two allows switching between the two modes of play. Salvaging doesn't always cover the bills, so the crew has to find some cargoes to haul. Which has its own challenges. At least, until rumors of more salvage reach their ears.

An economic system would be handy for finding markets to sell salvage or contraband. The Warden's Operation Manual has a basic economic system, but I'd to look to sources like Far Trader and Starports for GURPS Traveller for more details. Upward mobility is still impossible in Mothership, but the player characters might not live long enough to see their hopes for it crushed.