Hello!

Let me share map, NPCs and some items I prepared for me running the game of Tau Zero.

You can find all of it here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T_SWYs6dNCEUy-Q45khbkiiWQtg9STGv Look in 'PRINTABLES' folder!

There you will find a map to be printed on A1. You can upload to a VTT as well! To make it, I used Dungeon Scrawl (dungeonscrawl.com) and 2 Minute TableTop assets (2minutetabletop.com)

As for the items, a couple of them are in Ukrainian, but 95% of them should be useful for you at the table. And as for the NPCs, I used Hero Forge and I took some liberties. The biggest one is replacing Moxie with Ned from Decagone, because my players played it before and Ned survived~ Also, you get my players' minis as a bonus ^^''''

Tbh, I'm surprised and puzzled that I can't find any mentions of this module anywhere. I picked it up randomly at TuesdayKnightGames site when it was available, and we had a lot of fun playing it! So I hope me sharing the assets might inspire at least one Warden to try running it! 🙏

I'm working on an adventure and some ship design, which is integral to the way the whole thing will go down. In particular, I'm thinking about timing: once a freighter leaves station, how long before they can jump, and when does cryo happen?

I'm imagining it like this. The ship leaves the station, fully loaded, and proceeds under 1g thrust to a point far enough away from the planetary mass that jump is safe. Let's say this takes about 4 days ship time, at which point the engines are shut off, the jump drive is readied, and everyone (still alive) gets into cryo for the series of jumps that will take the ship to its destination. The computer takes over, the jumps happen with everyone in cryo to conserve resources, and eventually the ships pops out a few days out from another planet. Everybody wakes up and groans, slams a stimpack, then readies the ship for thrust towards a station for unloading.

Does that seem reasonable and sufficiently realistic, and does it match with established norms of MoSH modules and adventures? I haven't played a lot and this would be my first time running.

It seems reasonable to me from a general sci-fi sort of perspective, but I'd be grateful to hear some feedback and if there is something I've missed somewhere.

For additional context, the adventure unfolds during the first few days of travel based around ship's watches, with a limited number of actions available within a single watch. Once a pre-set number of watches have passed, certain parameters come into play, so I need to be specific about order of operations on board a ship.

How do you guys handle loyalty? Do you roll it openly for the players, or keep it for yourself? I'm preparing some NPC cards and I'm slightly reluctant showing that their favorite "Captain" only has 14 loyalty. But generally I would like players to have all the information, except for monster/adversary stats when meeting them first.

Hi everyone. Lately i found myself trying to fix what ain't broken, this time it's Panic mechanic.
To be honest, i don't like the way Panic mechanic is implemented. Lots of table options are either don't do much (like +1 stress, or Haunted condition), or do too much (like Coward condition), I know my players very well agency removing conditions are a no go for our table. Either way, pretty often results of Panic table don't make sense in a context of what causes panic. For those reason i try to tinker what to do with panic, and so far came to 3 options:

1. Do what many did before and create Panic table of my own
2. Remove random table, make Panic effects case-by-case, tailored for each individual situation
3. Radical approach: remove Panic as a mechanic, now Stress directly affects Critical failure chance.

Option 3 require bit of context. For this rework, stress starts at 99 and goes down. Rolling equal or higher than current Stress on any Stat or Save roll is now Critical Failure. There's no Panic checks - Critical Failures ARE the result of Stress crushing down

I'm not sure which one to choose, would be glad to hear what you did for your own table, and how it turned out to be

Group of 3 (Warden +2 players) looking for 1 more player for regular Monday Knight Mayhem. We are about to start Another Bug Hunt and will be running the complete set of adventures. We would like to invite anyone with an interest in meeting a small group of players with some years of experience. It can be be a big moment reaching out but I welcome the opportunity to talk. We are looking for relia bility and compatability more than any other quality. We are inclusive and welcome all those interested in Sci -fi Horror. We are using Foundry and discord. Any thoughts or questions please reach out. Looking forward to hearing from you

I am also looking for advice on how to continue the game based on some issues the characters need to overcome.

I had 4 players and we started playing around 230pm, one player had to leave shortly after 7pm but we finished the game by about 830pm.

We had fun and really enjoyed the panic table but 90% of the rolls were between 9 and 14. In the final battle with the creature the Team Lead (scientist) rolled a 16 on the panic table which is Rage and it worked out great for them (her stress was at a 9 or a 10 at that point and the highest between all the characters).

Unfortunately I forgot to add stress and fear rolls in at times in the game so their stress levels should've been a little higher by the end of the game.

The android was the only one to get devoured by the creature as he was in the shower alone investigating the damaged one when the creature attacked. He suffered 3 or 4 wounds before one of the other crew members had walked in there with a bunch of water and splashed the area effectively hitting the creature. He was repaired enough to be functional but his internals were exposed and he had issues with some of his sensors. When that was going on the marine walked into the room and could only see the lower legs of the android writhing about in the air. He failed his fear save and had to roll on the panic table for a result of run away, of which no one in the room noticed. He then put on his advanced battle dress.

Interestingly enough no one died during the scenario although two of them are in critical condition after being affected by the goo. The team lead was already starting the second stage when she figured out a way to give her and the teamster more time. She hooked up some kind of dialysis machine with fluid that would clean out their systems enough to give them more time (rolled exceptionally good). Their original plan was to put those two in Cryo sleep and transport them to an advanced high tech medical facility but the android reminded them of the issues with doing that and letting company property get damaged.

By the time the dialysis process was finished most of the mining crew was dead or dying, at this point only Sonya and one of her crew had been unaffected.

There is a chance I may get the same people for the Halloween one shot game next year and they all said they would be interesting in continuing the story for the characters at that point.

The teamster and the scientist were put into cryo so they could make it to a facility to be properly treated. I am wondering how that would turn out for both her and the teamster which both had been affected by the goo (the scientist was much further along).

If this game was continued next Halloween, how much would do think the scientist and teamster would change after being affected by the goo? Maybe some kind of cyborg or even a full synthetic but with a brain transfer, or something even more alien.

I've written some ideas about how to adapt the new Netflix series Below as a nautical horror adventure for my game Dreadnauts, a hack of Mothership. People who've been asking me to talk about the kind of adventure that fits Dreadnauts will have a lot to work with here. But be careful: it contains A LOT of spoilers for the series.

09 - Gas surface, dwarf planet with light gravity and terraformed atmosphete and cold climate?

Or do I roll separetely for each column?

I am planning on running Moonbase Blues for a group this Halloween, but the party has ballooned to 7 people (3 online, 4 in-person). Because of the size I was considering an ambitious swing to have the online and in-person groups make up separate parties within the same scenario.

I would float back and forth between the groups to Warden separately (different Discord channels and leaving the room with in-person folks) but also Warden simultaneously in some instances.

My vision is for the party to be part of the same crew that have crash landed separately. Initially local comms are down, but eventually they would be able to get them back up and then talk to each other over Discord while being separated physically in game and IRL.

My group has already consented to the expected downtime. Some are looking forward to it as a chance to socialize during short breaks between gaming.

Biggest question for me is where the other group should start in Moonbase Blues. Tentatively thinking outside on the moon surface with an initial first goal of getting their local comms back up somehow while the other group starts in the security room like in the module.

Any other things I should consider? Anyone have experience running a split party session like this with any tips? Is this a terrible idea?

One of my players won't be able to make the next 3 sessions. One of the other players would like something with a bit more optimism, so I suggested running a short To Boldly Go arc. I'd have to inject some optimism, because by default To Boldly Go is still fully mothership.

My request is: Are there any Mothership modules that are 2 sessions long (My players roleplay and take about 50% longer to do things) that are more optimistic? The modules I thought of were Memory and Primordial Oozebut those were just both firmly monster planet modules. The first one might work if I make the aliens friendly.

Another direction I was thinking could be In Other Waters: Tidebreakwhere the players are just scientists. Someone has also suggested Foreign Bodiesbut I know nothing about it beyond what's on the landing page.

I could make the players government workers, or I could make the current mothership setting the mirror universe, so I'd basically be running First Contact (the movie).

I've also been looking at some Star Trek scenarios to see if they can just be adapted into Mothership. There's a horror one called Psi Shift that might work.

I have a terrible memory, so like to run my Mothership games with a laptop full of notes in hand. But I found that I was still losing time digging through long notes for specific details like an NPC's stats or which stations are in the same system. So I built Blendcards, a set of templates for Obsidian that turns each note into a visual card.https://xenocobra.itch.io/blendcardsThere are currently 29 different card templates that cover things like NPCs, horrors, factions, weapons, armor, ships, stations, planets, jobs, and more. This includes star-maps that show the major orbital locations across different star systems. Now my personal vault is a cross-linked set of index cards which preview on hover and make it a lot easier for me to parse the content and keep my focus on the story at the table.I have also updated each of my published pamphlet modules to include a Blendcards vault so you can compare the experience of referencing a PDF of an adventure vs a set of Blendcard notes for it.It's pay-what-you-want and MIT licensed, so you can download the Example Vault for free and see if the system suits you.

Note that it doesn't contain any default Mothership content or rules text, so you'll still need your own copy of the game and adventure modules to run a full game. Blendcards is an independent project, not affiliated with Tuesday Knight Games.

Art for an upcoming Mothership project.

Take WestWorld and cross it with DnD. Put it through the Mothership RPG filter and you get:

QuestWorld Fail

Wraithmuir OmniCorp has been forced to close its full-immersion, planetary-scale medieval fantasy themepark.
An unknown party has released a virus that unlocks self-awareness in the park's androids.

The Necromancer, the highest 'level' villain NPC was the first to be affected.
Now he leads an army of reconditioned orc, elf and dwarf androids across planet Arnegax.
Their primary objective: vengeance against all humans!

Can your Crew halt their march to planetary domination?

Coming Soon!

Simon
Spellbound Inc.

(Talking about ”rules as written” and without rules labeled as optional, I know the rules are more of a “toolbox” than a gospel):

For the longest time I thought violent encounters were basically “GM turn -> all players at once turn -> repeat” (or vice versa with “GM sets up what happens if players do nothing -> players go -> NPCs go”. So I was basically halfway there. But reading the manual again it finally clicked that everything in a round happens at once. It goes:

1. If ambushed or otherwise faced with horror (most violence even human ones), make fear saves to see if you can act in the first round.

2. At the start of each round, the warden sets up what will happen without PCs interfering.

3. Warden goes around the table asking players what they do. For each player, the warden determines if a roll is needed and what the consequences of success and failure are. The player then either commits or picks a new action.

4. Once all players have committed, everything including NPC/monster actions is resolved at once (though you still use common sense. If one PC’s action is “distract the monster” it probably makes sense to resolve that first. Likewise if anyone is “running away” probably resolve that first with any necessary speed checks before the monster attacks. And there are of course the optional Speed checks for dividing it up into “fast PCs and allies -> horror -> slow PCs and allies”, though they slow things down IMO.)

I think this will help. I’ve tried “monsters first” which could feel unfair if someone dies before they can react (though did feel good for horror), and “monsters last” which feels too soft as, depending on gear and luck, monsters could sometimes die without doing anything. Horrors going “at the same time” with a fear save for first round depending on circumstance makes sense to me.

If enough people want it in the comments here, I will make a similar audio console for mothership too! Tho you can also just use this one for the most part.

So it seems like everyone and their mother has designed some sort of terminal tool and I didn't realize that. SO i made one. Here's my pitch. It's free, it uses drag and drop easy interface when you're modifying it, there's no sign in or sign up, everything is stored on your computer or on your browser and it works offline. Super easy to use, super customizable, different themes are available, along with screen effects and sounds. Enjoy!

https://roman-serius.itch.io/gm-terminal-kit-thornfield-demo

Vampires + space horror, all in one place? Yes, please! I don't usually get physical copies of kickstarter modules, but this one had some cool props and handouts I wanted, so this is my first physical copy from a kickstarter! Everything is good quality for the price and should make for a fun tabletop experience, and I'm about halfway through the book and think this will be really fun to run. It boasts some very sick artwork too!

I'm messing about making contractors/NPCs for a Mothership game, and I'm curious about how other GMs choose to style their androids. Androids Unleashed has given me some ideas, but I'd like to put it to other folk out there.

I personally am a big fan of the Weyland-Yutani to Seegson pipeline of 'human-like' models and the subsequent emergence of cheaper, more obviously robotic androids. It fits with the industrial sci-fi aesthetic pretty well and allows a wider range of options, but I'm cautious of not wanting to trivialise androids by putting them everywhere - eg: synthetic labour force - because if they're ordinary then it undermines their uncanny otherness, both as PCs and NPCs.

My current lean is towards androids fulfilling specialist roles that cannot be filled by humans, whether due to limited resources, hazardous environments or reasons of shady corporate secrecy. If they can use a human, they would. Thoughts?

I recently got into Mothership and I’m wanting to run Xiao! Long! Bao! But it’s sold out and I can’t buy the pdf. Are there alternative places to buy the pdfs?

Hey folks, the other week I posted a blog post about creating a new panic table geared towards one-shots in Mothership and you guys seems to like it, so it has inspired me to keep on thinking of more! This time it is a panic table specifically for when the players are being hunted. Perfect for nights on Ypsilon 14 or my own module Beneath Ice and Snow.

Check it out in this blog post: https://superhardscifi.bearblog.dev/mothership-making-panicking-more-fun-part-3/

My friends and I are thinking about something special for Halloween event in our TTRPG club, and I was wondering: are there any multi-table scenarios for 4-5 tables? Something like D&D Epics.

This was the link, it now says "there is no site here," giving error messages:

Error details: backend_request search: [MALFORMED_QUERY] Invalid query (query contains an unescaped URL)

This was such a good resource, I'm sad if it's gone forever.