Mothership is a science-fiction horror RPG published by Tuesday Knight Games. I describe it to potential players as inspired by Alien, Dead Space, The Thing, Event Horizon, etc. It originally released in 2018, but a revised & official 1st edition hit the store in June, 2024.
Mothership has become my favorite sci-fi RPG by far. It perfectly replicates what it sets out to do, so long as your players are on-board with the genre & you have a little imagination. I invite you to think like a horror movie director — this game is attempting to replicate that genre of sci-fi, and if you can put the pieces in their right places, the system shines as a bloody narrative unfolds.
1st edition Mothership mechanics are compact & concise. The entire core ruleset fits on the back of an A5 zine. This makes it perfect for dropping straight in, as players need very little time to get up to speed with what’s going on. The main resolution rule uses a d100 roll-under system to determine outcome. Many mechanics in this game interlink in a very satisfying, tight way. OSR design philosophy runs throughout Mothership, reserving rolls for important situations. If you’re throwing dice, something crazy is happening. In another post, I might go more into depth on Mothership’s mechanics & some examples of them working in play.
Now, let’s talk about Another Bug Hunt.
This is a newer module included in the 1e box set, and serves as an introductory scenario for beginning Wardens (Mothership’s name for GM) to cut their teeth on. It’s heavily inspired by Aliens: killer monsters that birth via chest-bursting have overrun a huge terraforming station on the jungle planet Samsa VI.
The module is split into four individual scenarios that can be linked together to form a small campaign. I’ve run the first scenario, Distress Signals, three times now and it’s been a blast every time. Any group size will work just fine — we’ve done 2, 3, & 4 player groups to great success. Another Bug Hunt can be run as a one-shot just as well; it even includes side-bars explaining how mission objectives change if you’re only running the one session. This is a theme that cuts through a lot of Mothership modules. They empower groups to play how they want, providing a toolkit to the Warden designed to maximize the goal of RPG’ing a sci-fi horror movie.
Distress Signals oozes with atmosphere. The PCs are sent by ‘the Company’ to investigate a research station that lost contact 6 months ago. They’re instructed to rendezvous with the station’s marine commander, re-establish power to the main computer, & retrieve any biological samples present in the medical laboratory (These objectives are a slight homebrew tweak from how they’re written — just check the module out).
Many choices were made to facilitate new Wardens here. A raging tropical storm makes radio communication nigh impossible, so required NPC dialogue is kept to a minimum. This is great, as it allows the Warden to focus heavily on building atmospheric dread. Greta Base is completely without power, and inside is a ransacked disaster. In my experience, PCs crawl through rooms taking their time trying to figure out what happened here.
The research station has one monster, tucked away deep inside. It makes itself first known with a rhythmic thumping the PCs can hear almost as soon as they set foot inside. Announcing the danger before they can physically see it is such a good practice in the horror genre. At every step, Another Bug Hunt encourages good behavior for Warden’s to take into every horror game they run. Having only one monster / “game piece” to worry about really let’s Warden’s take a seat in the director’s chair. There are a series of ventilation systems that connect various rooms in Greta Base — you’ve seen Alien enough times to know how crazy that can get.
This monster has features of both Alien’s xenomorph & Fallout’s mirelurk. Its armored shell is completely resistant to every conventional weapon except a smart rifle. Out of three groups, only a single marine rolled a smart rifle for his starting loadout. This kicks so much ass. Throwing an “unkillable” monster at your PCs makes them think on their feet & get creative with how they’ll take this thing down. Mothership wants you to treat every monster like a boss monster, and this first scenario encapsulates that perfectly.
Distress Signals also contains a couple of really cool maps. The first shows a 3d render of Greta Base as the PCs would see it coming in on the drop ship. I put this right in front of them. The rooms are labeled so it’s easy to reference & talk about at the table.
The second map is a minimalist, miniature top-down of Greta Base. I put an in-game version of this minimap in the airlock on the wall opposite the lockers. Players can download a copy to their HUD. The main thing this does is highlight the ventilation system. People always understand the implications of vents in horror games, and they’ve been used to interesting effect in every session I’ve run thus far. It’s tough to draw your players’ eyes to the vents when they’re looking around for bodies & aliens.
Computers have also proven to be a big part of each run. Let the PCs do crazy things with them. The airlock to the base was locked, so one of our androids hacked in and rolled a critical success. We allowed him to remote-operate any of the doors in the facility as his logic core interfaced with the base systems. Another group hacked into the main computer to gain camera control, which they used to track the beast once all hell broke loose. Computers are distinctly sci-fi, so not something you’ll often think of if you’re running a lot of fantasy games. You can prep a bunch of pre-programmed systems for them to interact with, or just let them come up with something cool.
This first scenario is really short, coming in at less than 10 pages (much of these taken up with awesome art). This is great. It requires minimal prep in a contained space that’s easy for new Wardens to manage. It is possible to “win” without once going into the garage where the alien hides; one group was so paranoid they avoided the thumping sound at all cost & made a beeline for the mission objectives. It would be a pretty boring alien movie if they never saw the alien. As Warden, you want to think of the monster as your game token: look for ways to bring it in on the fly without it being contrived.
With the group that was playing safe, I had the alien show up once they turned power back on in the base. Part of calling in the evac shuttle was re-establishing communication with the main reactor. This of course kicked all the lights back on, revved up the jukebox in the mess hall, and woke the alien from its corpse-house. Sometimes, you need to make these decisions on the fly. Don’t be afraid to try something. If you kill everyone on accident, have them roll up a squad of marines & session 2 is clean-up duty.
Go buy Mothership. Check out the core box here. It contains everything you need to play, including Another Bug Hunt. This the most fun I’ve had with RPGs all year; it’s earned my full recommendation. Happy gaming!
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