No One Heard That Scream.
A Galaxy-Sized Endeavor
Rules lite, Sci-Fi RPGs have proven, once again, to be perfect for always-on session Braunsteins and building engaging and long-lasting campaigns. They make character creation easy, have brutal combat, and when in the hands of a champion of the BroXT, create sessions that can change your entire perspective on the hobby (just ask Nightdanger!)
In the past couple months, I’ve launched a Mothership RPG campaign, and it has delivered. Now, you may be asking yourself: why didn’t Scutifer just run the classic Sci-Fi and staple brOSR system, Classic Traveller? Well, I’m experimenting with horror, and Mothership has fear and sanity mechanics that melt PCs faster than Dunder Moose in an ATV. So much of Classic Traveller is present in Mothership, and the nods to its predecessor are obvious to anyone with culture, but the addition of a Stress mechanic adds an aspect of complexity that I’ve enjoyed layering on top of the players working with AND against each other.
How does this work? I currently have three separate groups operating in the same Star System. This does not include my play-tester group (Dunder, Harmony, Jack, and Night Danger, but they were instrumental in working out the details, so thank you!). One group (in person) is currently on Samsa VI dealing with bugs. Another (in-person) group is on the space station Prospero’s Dream negotiating a trade deal between two rival factions, and the third group (online) is returning to Prospero’s after nuking a mining colony on Ypsilon 14. Each of these three separate crews have a ship, are competing with other crews for jobs/credits, and are competing with themselves with secret hidden orders.
The most recent session was with the online group (made up of my Youtube Channel members). They were tasked by the Interstellar Conglomerate, Synthara Enterprises, with delivering a shipment of supplies to a company mining facility. Each of the players were given secret orders that, if completed, would grant them a massive bonus from the company, and these (sometimes) put them in direct conflict with each other. Dr. Mess needed to recover alien-data from his colleague who was conducting research deep in the mine. Lt. Rowan Whitt needed to exterminate anyone contaminated with a plague onboard the asteroid, including any of his own crew who might become infected. And the Android, K8, needed to obtain and deliver to Synthara a contained specimen of the alien jelly discovered on the asteroid. Also, I threw in a very deadly alien on top of everything to light a fuse on the station. Now, the alien secretes the slime; the slime is responsible for the plague, and the research data will reveal all this to the players.
The PCs all pushed for their extra credits, but before they found the slime, I had the monster strike. It ate one of the miners right in front of them, but it was invisible on the human light spectrum, so they all went a little mad. They went for the data to understand what they were up against, and once there, they found the scientist was infected and covered in yellow jelly-slime. They went a bit more mad. He infected Dr. Mess, but they killed him and another plagued miner. They got the data, found that the jelly was responsible for spreading the plague. It didn’t stop K8 from securing a sample though to take off the ship. They decided to just leave the base with what they had, but the alien had other ideas. They eventually took it out with clever play, but it decimated the crew, and they went even more mad. That’s when Lt. Rowan turned his guns on the civilians and his crew mate, Dr. Mess. He killed as many of the infected as he could, but they began to overwhelm him, so he and K8, detonated a nuke on the mining facility to handle the horde of slimed miners. They are currently heading back to Prospero’s Dream to make their deliveries.
*If this sounds like fun and you want to play online, shoot me a message on X! Next session: July 12th, in-person.
Grades:
Jack M. (Dr. Mess)- Grade: Fair. You can’t win if you are dead.
Moritz L. (K8)- Grade: Excellent. Awesome work driving story, clever play against alien, and recovered a slime sample that will, undoubtedly, lead to further plagues. 1mcr bonus.
Parker (Lt. Rowan Whitt)-Grade: Superior. Great work with pvp. Killed his crewmate for the credits. Love this. 1mcr bonus awarded. But, stopping K8 from taking the jelly off Ypsilon 14 should have at least been considered.
Lessons and Take-aways:
Players need to create their own goals, but we’re experimenting here. Horror and mystery games obscure more information than standard D&D settings, so delivering player versus players objectives directly to players in the form of Company bonuses works well. What they do with this money will be completely play driven, so there is autonomy in how they upgrade their PCs and ship.
I’m excited to see how real-life will contribute to Braunstein effects in the campaign. The players in my first in-person group are real friends and co-workers and are only vaguely familiar with the other group, my closest friends, who have been gaming together for a decade. My online group is building a connection as well now that they’ve been playing together for a bit. They know the other groups will be taking resources from them, and their ships could meet in space. Its an arms race to see who can get the best weapons systems the fastest. Can real life preferences motivate these groups to take action against each other in game?
I haven’t seen the effects of 1:1 Time on the campaign yet. One group is on a planet alone, another is on a space station, and the last is still two months away from arriving at the space station. Combat turns in space take weeks to resolve in game but minutes at the table. This might be confusing, but again, this is an experiment.
Stress and Sanity contribute so much to the sessions. The PCs are falling apart as they grasp for any extra Credits they can obtain. They see horrible things, lose their sanity and must overcome those mental conditions, their own selfish teammates, rival crews, and all the horrible monsters I throw in their way.
I tried to push for each player getting their own ship and filling them with their PC stable, but every group rejected this idea and wanted to be a part of a team. They did consider getting their own ships eventually, but conventional play plagues this hobby worse than Griff stalks the soup aisle. The ideal would be, each player is the captain of their own ship, and as they gather credits, they build their ship or arsenal how each sees fit. The path they ALL opted for is much less exciting and very get-along-gang, but it might prove better for the mystery horror format. Too early to tell.
There will be a mega-dungeon nearby the space station for these groups to explore, but if the past is any indicator here, no one will delve it. Player OPPs always push to the forefront in these campaigns, but the classic delve option is available and very lucrative.
I regret nothing