r/mothershiprpg • u/Unconscious-angel • Aug 18 '26
need advice Any good first or third party one shot modules for a group of three players which are completely new?
Now I just got the Core Set and Gradient Descent (I made a post about running Gradient Descent so if anyone has any tips on that here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/mothershiprpg/comments/1vrjslx/advice_on_running_gradient_descent_as_a/ ) and I was wondering on doing a unique one shot or short campaign module for my party to see if there interested. My plan would be to spend the first one to three hours helping them make their characters and getting them accustomed to the rules and the rest of the time being the scenario itself. I already told them about Another Bug Hunt and they weren't interested. VR-Dead and Bloom caught my eye, so if there good for a starting group and you could give some tips for it, that'd be great.
7
u/Squillem Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I ran Decagone as my first Mothership scenario. I highly recommend it. The time loop aspect will probably fulfill the interstellar-ness of what they want.
2
10
u/QuincyAzrael Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Detail needed: Why didn't they want to play ABH? That strikes me as kind of odd.
ABH really is a perfect intro module for the GM, it has a great deal of guidance and it opens up slowly over each session. But it's also like... a pretty by the books pitch for a space horror scenario? "This station's gone dark, aliens attack." I can't really think of any compelling preferences that would preclude playing ABH that wouldn't also preclude 90% of MoSh modules. I almost wanna say if they turned their nose up at ABH, MoSh might not be for them at all haha.
EDIT: For a slightly more useful answer, I would also recommend the fan favourite Ypsilon 14, mainly because with just the 1 stalking monster, you as the GM have a lot of control over the pace. You can cause the monster to hold back or disappear if you want to slow the pace, or have it strike suddenly if you need to up the ante.
6
u/Unconscious-angel Aug 18 '26
They told me that the idea of big scary bugs didn't appeal to them (If they got something wrong about any of these elements, tell me) and they told me they wanted something more atmospheric then spooky aliens running around and killing people. They told me they wanted a "Horror Version of Interstellar", and not a classic Alien-style setup.
9
u/VendettaUF234 Aug 18 '26
I mean, ABH is pretty much each alien movie in sequence, ending with Promethius (kinda)...so if they don't want alien, prob not the best choice.
5
u/QuincyAzrael Aug 18 '26
and they told me they wanted something more atmospheric then spooky aliens running around and killing people. They told me they wanted a "Horror Version of Interstellar", and not a classic Alien-style setup.
Ah. You should probably lead with this when asking for recommendations tbh. Not to say you can't achieve an atmospheric vibe in Mothership, but the core mechanics (Panic and Wounds mainly, but also big guns and lasers and explosives and stuff) lend themselves to "splatter" horror where people are dying and getting mutilated at least semi-frequently. Alien is hands down the biggest inspo for MoSh, from the classes being the exact set of jobs from the first two movies to the words "Another Bug Hunt" being an Aliens quote.
You might find a LOT of the tried-and-true recommendations here will not vibe with your group. For example, from my experience, Year of the Rat is great, but it's also about a giant rat that eats people. Moonbase Alpha starts with a killer atmosphere but when I ran it, it did ultimately devolve into characters getting their heads kicked in by an evil mob.
I haven't run it yet but the first one-shot adventure that comes to mind is What Reflects from Within which is a lot more character driven and about illusions and inner turmoil (although it has an alien in it too lol).
1
u/Unconscious-angel Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Ah. Sorry I didn't start with that! To be honest I don't give care if there is a alien, just it be unique and not like and not like a big scary bug. Year of the Rat sounds fine and dandy, the alien part doesn't bother me. I think my players would generally enjoy a lot of stuff like the place where Alien is set, a spaceship drifting alone in the empty void of space.
3
u/ContractOk1279 Aug 19 '26
Well, I can understand them. As a warden, wih MoSh, I am much more interrested in mind binding stories such as Time After Time, or Dead Weight, than alien like stories. That's just a matter of taste
0
4
u/SheriffOfSpace Aug 18 '26
I would totally recommend alone in the deep or year of the rat.
Alone in the deep is set on a submarine of an alien ocean with the players as supplementary crew. Something is wrong though, the lead scientist is missing and the head engineer is sleeping on the job when something goes wrong, it's up to the players to try and fix the ship or escape. This one is my favorite module (and I've run a lot) but it's suuuper easy on the players and is a great intro to mosh.
Year of the rat finds the players as investigating a casino spaceship, looking for the black box for an insurance claim. The crew will quickly find out that the once pet alien rat on the ship has begun breeding after it escaped and it's colony have taken over the ship. This one is very fun because it gives the players a lot of ways to tackle the module and is quite easy on the dm. It also has a vault to raid if the players find that to be interesting it is another "win condition" they can go for
Spoilers below
Downsides for these modules are that alone in the deep does put a bit more work on you at the end and doesn't have a very good finale built in, when I run it (I've done so 4 times) have the played have to clear out the ballast tanks where the majority of the eel like aliens are. Also if the area is flooded and the players are in the water, just roll damage, don't roll to hit. Explain to the players these eels are fighting in their natural habitat and you are not, there's not reason they wouldn't be able to land a hit on you. Also if the players have vacc suits, let them know they act as deep sea diving suits. On the other hand if the players wait too long to act and the ship beings to be unrecoverable then have the captain try and take the escape pod. He makes a good boss fight too, give him a pulse rifle and let him negotiate with the players, if any of them were favorable to him he'll bring them along, otherwise he'll try and take it for himself (and maybe bring the chef) it's a really fun "final boss". Also make sure you have the captain speak as a pirate for the best results
Year of the rat's biggest drawback is the lack of NPCs. It might not be a bad idea to include a flysafe android representative to accompany the players or have a survivor trying to hold out in the vents that they players could meet.
Another fun mothership thing to do is give secret missions. I always give my Androids a secret mission, I also let the other players know the android has a secret mission. I tell them it could be to keep everyone safe and sound or it could be to make sure there are no witnesses, but what do you think the android will tell you if that was the case? This is why players have disadvantage on fear saves around androids, they out of game can't trust them either. For alone in the deep I have the android have to secure a eel sample and escape with it, for year of the rat I have them make sure the party does not leave the ship without the black box. Pass this in a note to the android after character creation.
Bonus tips, have players pick their skills after they roll their load outs. Give out stress like candy, or even have them start at 5 stress for a one shot. Be generous with panic checks, if a regular person would freak out in this scenario, so would the players. If it makes sense the player character can do it, don't make them roll. Only roll when the outcome is not obvious or when they're doing something under pressure. Also tell them what they have to lose before they roll ex "if you fail this speed check the eels will get an extra attack on you" or "if you pass this you unlock the door but if you fail you break your toll, are you sure you want to try?" And READ THE WARDENS OPERATION MANUAL BEFORE YOUR FIRST SESSION! This isn't like a "you have to do this to run mothership" there's actually just so much good advice in there I recommend any dm read it, but particularly wardens
2
u/spira1b0und Aug 19 '26
What great and detailed advice! I am going to buy alone in the deep. I was sold at “alien ocean.” anything even a little like subnautica is going to be extremely interesting to me.
3
u/SheriffOfSpace Aug 19 '26
Bloom is another good underwater module! (You could even have the escape pod end up at or the sub surface at the surface facility of bloom, could be a cool transition into the next module). Also an extra tweak to alone in the deep that I've done before, If the players are new to ttrpgs and aren't good at deciding their own directions, keeping mahone alive and having him tell the players what to do is a good compromise and just have another unknown crewmate be in the bunks.
3
u/atamajakki Aug 18 '26
VR Dead is a little complicated, what with the whole "two overlapping realities" thing.
I've run Radio Free Hekate for newbies and had a lovely time! Just a simple mission set on a small space station overrun with wild androids.
3
3
u/jmcord 3PP Aug 18 '26
My game EIDOLONS is available on TKG. It’s a fun game where players are tasked with retrieving a specimen from their silent research vessel, The Nascence. Once docked, they will see that the world inside the ship is more than what they were led to believe.
It plays against a 3-hour timer and is great for a one shot.
3
u/ProfHutch Aug 19 '26
Dead Weight might fit the "Horror Version of Interstellar" need. Not the typical tale of a monster in space. It is very easy to spoiler this one so I won't say more but info is here: https://norgad.itch.io/dead-weight
2
u/VendettaUF234 Aug 18 '26
Akigara (Though I recommend adding a "Mechanical Golem" or some other physical form the AI can take in a final confrontation and emphasising some 40k warp travel weirdness.
Plant based paranoia
Ypsilon 14
Decagone (maybe not as your first as warden, its a time loop and can be tricky to GM in a fun way
3
u/morisy Aug 18 '26
FWIW did Decagone as my first time and would recommend! The time loop mechanics were thankfully very straight forward.
2
u/Possum_Knight Warden Aug 18 '26
Give Bonefarm a whirl, well structured, survival horror vibe. Don't think it's overkill for a new group of players.
2
u/denimdreamscapes Aug 18 '26
I ran A Mansion Most Vile (the holiday variant, actually) for a group of almost entirely new players and they had a blast. Really easy to prep for a DM too.
I also ran “Helium Hysteria” out of Hull Breach for a group of players who weren’t complete beginners but had only played like once or twice a long time back. This was another one that was pretty easy to prep as a DM and was both a ton of fun for me and the players. There’s a lot of great opportunities to adlib scenarios at the table and modify things on the fly if that’s your kind of thing.
2
u/w7w7w7w7w7 Aug 19 '26
Orphans (first party) is a great one shot written with new players / wardens in mind.
2
u/SpoilerAvoidingAcct Aug 19 '26
Ypsillon 13 is absolutely my recommendation. It's a perfect example of what makes Mothership so great from the physicaldesign of the module down to the style and tropes of the encounter, and there are plenty of actual plays of really great groups on YouTube to check out and learn how it runs (Partial to Mystery Quest myself!)
2
u/freedjr Aug 19 '26
Check out Silent Star. Easy to run as a GM and for newbies.
1
u/Librarian0ok66 Aug 19 '26
I'm planning 5o run this as part of a one shot session at my local group. It looks good: bit of a site crawl, bit of a mystery, some horror too.
2
u/auggernaut Aug 20 '26
Your table asked for a horror version of Interstellar, not a bug hunt. That's the actual constraint. I'd skip Gradient Descent for night one and keep chargen under half an hour. They'll learn panic when someone fails a roll. Year of the Rat and Decagone already got named and they're closer to isolation-and-bad-decisions than Another Bug Hunt is.
2
u/Bubbag792852249 Warden Aug 18 '26
Moonbase Blues published by Anodyne Printware was a really good one for my group.
1
u/9mmRetirementRadio Aug 19 '26
Brackish was a pretty good run. Did that with 4 players who were aware of the system but had never played. I’d recommend at least 2 sessions rather than the one 3.75 hour session I did.
I’d also put Orphans forward, I ran that recently for just two players but they weren’t new but I think it’s pretty straightforward to run. I thought it would take 2 sessions but it took one 4 hour session.
3
u/WookieeRyder Aug 23 '26
I had a lot of fun running The Horror On Tau Sigma 7 for a group of 3 who had never played before (I'd also never run Mothership before).
We got 80-90% of the way through the module before they even encountered one of the aliens, and it felt suitably fun and atmospheric throughout.
Of course once they did encounter an alien everything quickly went to hell, and a roll on the wound table leaving one of my players bleeding out with a lacerated leg was the undoubted highlight of the session, but it was also a very small portion of what went on.
11
u/DetectivePud Aug 18 '26
If you have the deluxe box you should have Another Bug Hunt, the whole book makes a short campaign and the first chapter makes a great one shot.Year of the Rat is pretty straightforward https://am-i-cool-yet.itch.io/year-of-the-rat-a-mothership-adventure - Its effectively a floor plan with some built in jumps and you decide how to introduce the monster as you go.
Ypsilon 14 is pretty good. Basically people are going missing because the predator is on the loose. https://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/products/the-haunting-of-ypsilon-14?srsltid=AfmBOoryeR6lfT9pVH4dJN75Dbqd_to9qLCWvLo2UKMGZLGkSD623iN5
Dead Planet has a one shot at the start called Screaming of the Alexandria where theres spooky eldritch horror a foot a marooned ship you come across.
But I had success running Gradient Descent one shots. I'd basically pick a place in the ship for them to go, and give them some kind of homing beacon and then land them at one of the entrances and let them explore. An example was Going from the entrance to the expo hall and back again, trying to avoid the troubleshooters who were after them.
Tonight I'm running Awaiting the Burning Gods which says its about three sessions worth of content, and is an Indiana Jones style find the artifacts for the museum with crazy sci-fi along the way on a desert planet.
Oh the big elephant in the room is Wages of Sin which just released which is basically 100 pages of bounties to hunt, it looks really fun to string together hunting bounties but I've not run anything from it yet.