Fans of interstellar horror have had a few good years. Free League Publishing released a licensed RPG set in the Alien universe. These books feature art and rules that mirror the dark beauty of the IP. But there’s another game along the same lines, inspired by films like Alien, Event Horizon and Dead Space, that runs in the RPG zine scene with a vibe that feels like finding an obscure movie in a mom and pop video store. Mothership, like its cinematic inspirations, has been gestating in a free-to-play alpha version for many years and has now burst forth onto Kickstarter to raise over a million dollars for its official release.
“I was heavily involved in the Old School Renaissance blogging scene at the time and I wanted to put to use some of the design principles I had learned there,” said Sean McCoy, Mothership’s designer and co-founder of Tuesday Knight Games. “I wanted to stay away from fantasy because I felt like that had been covered pretty clearly already. Instead, I had been working on a cyberpunk game called Null.hack, a brand new system, custom classes, a bunch of abilities and cyberware, the works. But I couldn’t get the game to the table. There were too many new elements. In a fit of frustration I decided to design something smaller, something that could fit on a single sheet of paper with a more clear goal. That’s when I turned to this idea of astronauts exploring an ancient alien mothership. I put together a “pocketmod,” basically a folded up piece of paper you could throw in your wallet, and decided to start there.”
The “pocketmod” turned into Mothership: Player’s Survival Guide, a free PDF which worked its way through the TTRPG community. The simple rules and dark art turned it in to a favorite of horror gaming fans looking for something to mimic the short, brutal stories of people trapped in space with something awful. Before long, expansion products started cropping up, including rules for players to play androids and adventure modules.
“I thought I’d turn each section or each page of the pocketmod into a page of a zine, said McCoy, “Just expand and explain the content a little better, use better information design. Once we had released the early access zine, what we now call 0e, people were clamoring for an adventure. We went out and made Dead Planet, A Pound of Flesh, Gradient Descent, all before properly going back and making any changes we wanted to make.”
The game’s rules have been slightly revised for the Kickstarter edition. Violence now cause wound that hamper a character and have the potential to be fatal immediately. Characters accumulate Stress that may cause them to panic which can spread to other characters.
“It was a good problem to have,” said McCoy. “We learned a lot about reducing the number of edge cases you have in a game. Reducing any barriers to play. We’ve streamlined violent encounters and put all our emphasis on getting new players quickly acquainted with the rules. Our biggest lesson from this whole period was just start small and build big.”
That construction included embracing outside contributions and third party support. For a game that hasn’t been officially released yet, Mothership has a lot of support in the form of adventures, genre hacks and other expansions.
“I don’t think D&D would’ve gotten where it is today without companies like Judge’s Guild working along side them,” said McCoy. “No one can make that much content that quickly, or support the game to the fullest extent. We’re heavily invested in the life of our community because they take Mothership to a lot of creative places we wouldn’t always have the bandwidth to go. Without them, we’d be stuck at a release or two a year. But it’s been three years and we have over 60 third party products published. Now all of a sudden, there’s a real product line.”
The long awaited Kickstarter featured the updated rules in digital and printed formats. In addition to the player’s guide, there’s also a guide for the Gamemaster player full of advice and a book of all-new alien creatures with advice on how tomake new ones. Unlocked stretch goals include audio clips that can be played to enhance the horrific atmosphere of a game session, starship rules and a brand new starter adventure called Another Bug Hunt.
For physical rewards, backers can choose the basic game, a deluxe version that comes with printed copies of the official supplements, or a mega bundle that includes a core box, a deluxe box and printed versions of their pamphlet adventures and a T-shirt. The RPG boxed set is going through a bit of a renaissance in the moment and Tuesday Knight Games wanted to take advantage of it for the official release of Mothership.
“I wanted something reminiscent of my favorite games: Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, and Cyberpunk,” said McCoy, “which all had these great boxed sets in the beginning. They feel like toys, like games meant to be played. I wanted to have something that vibrated with energy as soon as you picked it up, and that’s what a boxed set means to me. It’s filled with potential, endless possibilities. It demands to be played.”
The Mothership Sci-Fi Horror 1st Edition RPG Boxed Set Kickstarter runs through December 2nd. The games are expected to be deliver in November of 2022.