Instant Panic Effects for Mothership

Mothership Panic effects are great and flavorful, but many are longer term consequences that might not matter so much in a one shot or short scenario.

I came up with a simple rule (adapted somewhat from Delta Green) that augments the existing table:

Whenever you fail a Panic check choose an immediate response of fight, flight, or freeze, in addition to the normal effect.

Fight: You instinctively attack the source of your fear without coordination or consideration of the situation. You must fight for 1d5 rounds or until the source of your panic is killed or flees.

Flight: You flee the immediate source of your fear at full speed for 1d5 rounds or until you feel you have reached safety. You are heedless of other danger while you do so.

Freeze: You freeze in place unable to act for 1d5 rounds or until the source of your panic is no longer present.

An ally can try to snap you out any of these conditions with an action, for which you immediately roll a Fear save, breaking out of the condition on a success.

Players always get to choose which effect when they panic, and it can be different each time.

NPC Stress and Panic

Using this simple system you can add Panic checks to NPCs easily, without having to track a bunch of conditions.

To track Stress for an NPC make four checkboxes or circles. Whenever an NPC would gain Stress (from a failed roll, or just from an encounter) mark a box. Each box counts as five Stress, so if they need to make a Panic check they will be rolling against 5/10/15/20. If they Panic, choose one of the instant effects above, then reset their Stress boxes.

July 17, 2024 Mothership

Mothership Simple Lifepaths

In the Mothership Player’s Survival Guide there is an option to sign up for military service, effectively giving you Marine skills, stats, and trauma response. Plus a nice little hat tip to Traveller in the fact that you can die in character creation.

To me this looks like a lifepath done in typical Mothership simplicity, handled by a single roll. So that made me think what such a lifepath roll would look like for the all the standard classes. This would be used at character creation (and is in fact the method I’m thinking of doing character creation for my modern horror Panic Engine system).

Note: Take the stat and save bonuses, maluses, and trauma response as normal for each class.

Marine You sign up for a 6 year term of service with the Colonial Marines. Make a Combat check to see how it went:

Success: Gain Military Training, Athletics, and two Trained skills. You have a rank of Corporal.
Critical Success: as Success, but you may gain an Expert skill instead of the two Trained skills. You have a rank of Master Sergeant.
Failure: as Success, but you only gain one Trained skill. You were busted back down to Private.
Critical Failure: If the roll was even, you were wounded in action and have Max 1 Wound. Gain skills as Success. If the roll was odd you were dishonorably discharged after a court-martial. Gain Military Training, Athletics, and Rimwise.*

* Alternatively: You were killed in action.

Android The creation of sapient Android minds is more of an art than a science, even copies of the same model line can have variations in the final results. Make a Sanity save to determine your build quality:

Success: Gain Linguistics, Computers, and Mathematics, and two Trained skills. You have passed your Quality Assurance inspection.
Critical Success: as Success, but you can take an Expert skill instead of the two Trained skills. Exceptional build quality, flagged for special assignments.
Failure: Pick two of the three skills of a success plus an additional Trained skill. Quality rating downgraded, flagged for lower grade service.
Critical Failure: Gain skills as Success. If the roll was even you have a manufacturing flaw in your body, -20 Speed. If the roll was odd you have a manufacturing defect in your logic core, -20 Sanity. Either way you failed QA inspection but escaped before you were recycled.

Scientist You have enrolled in higher education or training of at least 6 years of education. Roll Intellect to determine your academic success:

Success: You gain a Master skill, and an Expert and Trained pre-requisite. Gain 1 additional Trained skill. You graduated with success and gained your degree.
Critical Success: as Success but treat the pre-requisites of your Master skill as having a +20 bonus as well. You are a prodigy in your field of study with an understanding few have.
Failure: You gain two Expert and and two Trained skills. You failed to complete your program but still got something out of it.
Critical Failure: You are a pariah in your field of study. If the roll was odd, your controversial position or discovery was correct, but the world was not ready. Gain skills as a Success but lose your +30 Sanity save bonus. If the roll was odd you were ejected for legitimate controversies, such as publishing fraudulent data. Gain skills as Failure and lose your +10 Intellect stat bonus.

Teamster You started an apprenticeship to learn a trade taking two to four years. Roll a Strength OR Speed check (whichever is better).

Success: Gain Industrial Equipment, Zero-G, and Expert and Trained skill. You completed your apprenticeship and are licensed for work.
Critical Success: as Success, and gain an Expert and Master skill from the Industrial Equipment or Zero-G branches. You exceeded expectations, and were sponsored for an advanced training program. This add an additional two years to your education.
Failure: as Success, but only 1 Trained skill as a bonus. You passed your credential requirements, barely. Your best bet for work are less discerning operations.
Critical Failure: You were involved in a colossal mistake that resulted in criminal charges, only just now released from prison. If the roll was even you were falsely accused, if odd the charges are legitimate. Either way gain Rimwise, Industrial Equipment and one Trained skill. Your only hope for work is unlicensed or illegal operations.

July 11, 2024 Mothership

Shoot the Moon

A scenario for Delta Green. It is in the Mothership RPG (or my forthcoming modern Panic Engine system).

It is 2041. With the success of the Artemis missions NASA and humanity has returned to the Moon, this time establishing a permanent presence in the form of the Gateway space station and the Artemis Base Camp located near the Moon’s south pole. Now that the base camp is operational excavation has begun into polar ice located within the South Pole-Aitken basin for scientific exploration and resource gathering. They are about to find something much more momentous buried in the ice and rock.

Mission Start
Delta Green, knowing many threats lie in the void, have made an effort to maintain a presence on the Artemis mission. However, even Delta Green can only manage limited agents in this arena.

When starting this scenario one player is a Delta Green agent stationed at the base camp; the Program could not arrange any more than that. All other players should be regular base camp crew, one of whom is the base commander. There are six crew stationed at the camp; after PCs are accounted for use any of the following NPCs to make up for the remaining crew:

Payload Specialist Adelinde Schultze - A botanist from the ESA, Adelinde is on a limited term mission to determine requirements to establish a hydroponics facility in future base expansions. A new astronaut, she is still nervous about operating under such extreme conditions. C: 15 I: 10 Wounds: 2 Skills: Botany(+15), Microbiology (+15)

Pilot Ripley Warner - Ripley is the pilot specialist stationed at Artemis base, a veteran of a decade of missions, confident and easygoing. C: 15 I: 25 Wounds: 1 Skills: Drive(aircraft) (+20), Military Training (+10)

Mission Specialist Takehiko Ishida - A geologist from JAXA, Takehiko works with Pace developing mining operations as well as sampling regolith for scientific experiments. Will happily talk anyone’s ear off about sample compositions for hours if given a chance. C: 15 I: 10 Wounds: 1 Skills: Geology (+20), Engineering (+10)

In addition to their skills, characters have all received standard astronaut training in the use of equipment and operating in zero-G or low gravity environments. Each are allocated a spacesuit and equipment needed to do their jobs.

NASA Spacesuit: AP: 3 Oxygen: 12 hours. Includes radio comms and headlamp. Decompression in 1d5 minutes if punctured.

NASA astronauts have no need of firearms and they are disallowed on missions for obvious reasons. However Delta Green has contrived of a way to get one to their agent at Artemis base. During a public relations mission, the agent secured an old Russian survival kit containing a TP-82 combination gun, capable of firing rifle rounds, shotgun shells, and flares. There are 6 of each in the kit.

TP-82 Combination gun
Range: Long (lunar Gravity) 3d10 DMG Shots: 2 Wounds: Gunshot Special: Flares can be seen from Long range and deal 1d5 DMG (Fire[-]). The stock of the TP-82 can be used as a machete dealing 2d10 DMG (Bleeding[+]).

The Discovery
There is one additional NPC at the base, who starts off this scenario: Mission Specialist Pace Stevenson. An engineer with specialty in mining, Stevenson is the current crewmember overseeing ice mining and sampling at Artemis base. A roughneck with a congenial personality, Stevenson loves being out on the lunar surface.

Stevenson is operating the L-Rex regolith excavator to harvest water ice from the bottom of Shackleton Crater when he meets resistance from an unexpected object.

Stevenson radios Artemis Base and describes the situation as it unfolds:

He reports the L-Rex scraped into some kind of hard object and he is investigating.
Reports a dark patch in the ice beneath him. What is exposed looks like it may be metal or synthetic.
A surprised shout is heard over the radio before being abruptly cut off. He responds a moment later that he fell; the strange material seemed to give out under him but he is ok. He reports he will be returning to base.
Comms with Stevenson end.

What Happens Next
When Pace Stevenson attempts to extricate himself from his fall, the ceiling overhead closes. He has inadvertently entered the alien ship. What he finds inside replaces him with a jumbled mass of flesh bound inside his spacesuit.

This false Stevenson is what emerges from the ship and arrives at Artemis Base an hour later headed for the Human Landing System. Its opaque sun visor is down and it does not respond to comms. If it is allowed to board it will initiate an emergency launch sequence and dock with the Gateway station, attempting to take the Orion spacecraft to Earth.

False Astronaut
C: 55 Unarmed 1d10 DMG or as weapon I: 25 W: 2(10) AP: 3 (Spacesuit)

Explosion of flesh tendrils: A mass of writhing flesh explodes from the seams in the suit and attempts to envelop a target. Body save or else be engulfed taking 1d10 DMG per round from constriction, as well as being rendered blind and restrained. If a target is killed by this, the False Astronaut regains a Wound. Cannot be performed in vacuum.

Behavior: If the False Astronaut is attacked it turns and attacks the threat. It will make use of objects close to hand around as makeshift weapons. If it gains a Wound it tries to disengage and flee to the buried ship. If it reaches it, it will emerge fully healed after 20 minutes.

If the spacesuit is breached in a vacuum it is knocked prone and viscous fluid bubbles out to seal the breach. It gets up the next round and carries on. This triggers a Sanity save if anyone is not already aware of what is inside the suit.

Opening the visor shows an undulating press of flesh and viscera against the helmet glass. Opening the suit reveals a confused jumble of flesh and bone clinging in strands to the inside surfaces of the suit. Either of these actions trigger Sanity saves the first time they are witnessed. Testing the contents of the suit reveal it to be the DNA of whoever was disassembled last mixed with unknown organic substances (Sanity save for anyone revealed these results).

Artemis Base Camp

A small outpost established at the Moon’s south pole. This location was chosen due to the proximity of water ice in nearby craters and because it gets near constant sunlight. The majority of the habitat is buried under piled up regolith to protect inhabitants from cosmic rays.

Crew Quarters: Small rooms that fit a bed and minor storage and a shared bathroom.
Galley: A kitchen for food storage and preparation.
Lab: A basic lab for materials testing. Also contains storage for tools for geological samples and base maintenance: Toolkit (Drills, wrenches, screwdrivers), hammers, shovels, pickaxes, electronic repair kits, flashlights.
Airlock: Crew spacesuits plus two spare.

Water Extraction Plant
This facility takes deliveries from the crater mining sites and extracts water and other volatiles. The Lunar Regolith Excavator (L-Rex) and Lunar Transporter (L-Tran) are stored here when not in use.

Solar Array
A field of photovoltaic panels arranged vertically capture the sun skimming the horizon. Thick electrical lines wind to the habitat proper. Electric powered rovers are plugged into the array charging their batteries.

Nuclear Reactor
A micro fission nuclear reactor has been established to carry the camp through the two week window of darkness the south pole goes through each year. It provides output equivalent to the usage of a typical house, so operations are limited during this time.

HLS
The Human Landing System vehicle allows transfer to and from the lunar surface to the Gateway station in orbit. This vehicle allows transfer to and from the lunar surface to the Gateway station in orbit.

The Buried Ship

Buried beneath ice and regolith is a clearly alien structure. Though comprised of metal and synthetics it looks grown rather than built. This is a ship of alien origin that crashed in the lunar crater and has been trapped here awaiting discovery.

As the structure is approached interlocking hexagonal pieces fold away from a doorway allowing passage. Because of the angle of the ship this is tilted down, such that anyone standing over it will fall into the “airlock”. If open, it is easy to jump out under the Moon’s low gravity.

After entering it closes and begins to fill with a viscous liquid, opening an interior door when full. The same liquid is found throughout the ship. It is slow to move through, imposing disadvantage on rolls relating to moving quickly. Those traveling through the fluid can feel pulses and waves transmitted through it from an unknown source.

The ship is small, essentially the “airlock” and a wide interior chamber. Inside, the sinuous curves of the walls are embedded at irregular intervals with glowing lights and knobby protrusions.

Suspended in the central chamber is Mission Specialist Pace Stevenson’s neatly disassembled body suspended in the fluid: organs, muscle, bone and tissue separated and spread out like an anatomical display (Sanity save [-]). If studied closely, one can notice the eyes follow anyone in the chamber (Sanity save [-] and Panic).

Hidden in the shadows of the ceiling are spindly metallic limbs, which lash out at anyone entering the chamber attempting to take them apart (Body save or be grabbed, taking a Wound per round). The arms move unimpeded through the fluid but focus on their task at hand ignoring anyone else. Witnessing the arms at work triggers a Fear save.

The arm assembly can be broken by being dealt 10 or more damage but rebuild themselves over the course of an hour.

People disassembled by the arms aren’t technically dead as long as they are suspended in the fluid but cannot interact with anything and have 1 HP, take 20 Stress, and Panic. Of course, there is no obvious way to reverse their condition.

Shortly after someone is disassembled perturbations can be felt in the chamber fluid and some of it begins to turn the color of flesh and organs. It forces its way into the discarded spacesuit of the victim forming a new False Astronaut, then makes its way to the airlock and out of the ship. Anyone who acts quickly enough can follow it into the airlock to escape.

July 3, 2024

Will clean this post up later. Was quickly made as a response to a request in the Mothership Discord.

As always, a player can veto or reroll a result if they aren’t comfortable with a particular bond or if it doesn’t fit their character.

Human-human bonds

You are siblings or step-siblings, and are close.
You are siblings or step-siblings, and are estranged.
You are distant cousins.
You are found family, your bond is closer than many are with their blood relations.
You were childhood friends but drifted apart.
Your bond was forged in fire: you served together in a military situation or else both survived a dangerous situation.
One of you holds the other on a pedestal, whether deserved or not.
You grew up in the same faith and/or church, and are still religious.
You grew up in the same faith and/or church, but one or both of you have abandoned it.
You both grew up in the same tiny settlement in the middle of nowhere.
One of you saved the other’s life.
You had a romantic relationship but circumstances drove you apart.
You had a romantic but short-lived fling before going your separate ways.
You had romantic chemistry but never acted on it.
You are recent acquaintances but quickly clicked as friends.
You have worked professionally together before in a lucrative limited term contract.
You have worked professionally together and were both unjustly terminated.
One of you took the fall for the other’s crime, intentionally or not.
One of you intentionally or unintentionally caused the other to lose a great deal of money or another valuable opportunity.
You had a romantic relationship, and it ended badly.
You are frenemies, or have a friendly rivalry that is in reality not so friendly.
One of you was the other’s childhood bully.
You are mortal enemies.
One of you is the clone of the other, but you do not share memories.
One of you is the clone of he other, including backed up memories.

Android-human bonds

You served the human character in childhood, as a nanny or tutor.
You have served the other character’s family for generations. They grew to see you as family as well.
You served the other character’s family for generations. They always only saw you as an object.
You were officially assigned to the other character as an aide by a company or government.
You were officially assigned to the other character as an aide by a company or government but are secretly spying on them and supposed to give regular reports.
You served as an android asset to a military squad the other character was a part of. They came to see you as one of them.
The other character built or repaired you.
The other character saved you from being salvaged or destroyed.
The other character helped free you from restrictive programming or constraints because they felt it was the right thing to do.
The other character helped free you from restrictive programming or constraints because They wanted to use you for an operation or cause.
The other character altered your programming so you report to them instead of your original purpose.
You helped or saved the other character despite your programming. You still aren’t sure how or why this happened.
You both entered a (taboo) romantic relationship. It fell apart when the other character was unsure if your feelings were genuine, or even could be. You aren’t sure yourself.
The other character sent you to be recycled or decommissioned. Somehow you avoided that fate.
You were assigned the task of assassinating the other character. You haven’t done so, despite ample opportunity.
The android character is the fragmented backed up mind of the human character, mistakenly thought to be dead.

Android-android bonds

You were both made in the same factory, one serial number apart.
You were both assigned to work for a wealthy patron who died, leaving you both in limbo.
One of you was a freed android, and removed the programming restraints from the other.
You both served together in the Android resistance front.
You both served together in the Android resistance front, but one of you is secretly a spy for corporate interests.
You were both part of a collective of rejected or decommissioned androids, scraping by on salvaged parts.
You both served in a prestigious assignment. Now both of you have been cut loose.
One of you is the new model replacement for the other.
One of you believes the other to be an android messiah.
You are both fragments of a greater AI mind, forced to flee into android bodies.
One of you is the backup duplicate of the other, brought online when the first was mistakenly thought destroyed.

March 21, 2024

Chases in Mothership

I have been looking into decent chase rules for Mothership beyond a basic speed check for a while. First, I found the rules for the old 007 game (no longer published, but a clone was made as a game called Classified with essentially the same rules). These seem fun but are a little more complicated than what I was looking for. Next I turned to the Mothership Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, which has rules for ship engagements that can work as a chase. Building from these two sources, and after some adjustments after trying them out in my PBP game, I think I’ve come up with something I like. It is streamlined enough to drop into a session without a ton of explanation, but adds a bit more complexity and tension than a basic check.

Chase Basic Rules Chases consist of a number of opposed checks in rounds, with the standard being a Speed check. A character can make a number of chase checks equal to 1 + 1 for every 10 points in their Body save before they are exhausted and must stop to rest at least 10 minutes. They might gain extra checks from certain equipment, drugs, or cybermods.

As a chase begins, determine the starting distance apart measured in the standard range bands: Adjacent, Close, or Long (perhaps Extreme if the pursuer is supernaturally fast or large).

Both sides make a Speed check. If one side succeeds, the distance between them changes in their favor. If one side rolls a critical success they make progress even if the other side succeeds. If one side rolls a critical failure they must roll on the accident table and the opposing side makes progress even if they fail their check. All other results result in neither side making progress. Skills such as Athletics may be used to give a bonus to this check.

Stunts During the chase either side may choose to make a check to perform a stunt in place of their Speed check, for example ducking down an alley to hide, turning around so the pursuer overshoots them, pulling objects in the way to slow the pursuer, making an attack, looking for a shortcut, or tackling their opponent.

The check required should match the stunt, such as Strength to pull shut a heavy door or Intellect to spot a shortcut and is modified by skills as usual. It is assumed you are still moving while you perform your stunt. Taking a stunt is risky. If the stunt fails, the chase distance changes in your opponent’s favor even if the they fail their check.

Many stunts can effectively end a chase, such as ducking away and hiding, or tackling an opponent (in which case combat would likely break out instead).

Accidents If a party critically fails a roll during a chase they have suffered an accident, and they will have to roll on the accident table to determine the consequences.

d10 Result 1: Take 1 Stress 2-5: Take 1d5 damage or Stress (whatever makes more sense) 6-9: Disadvantage on next chase check 10: Fear save or Panic

Or if there is a unique consequence that fits for an accident, use that instead.

Obstacles Obstacles can crop up during a chase and complicate matters, for example running into a dead end street, road block or impassable terrain, the sudden appearance of a hostile force from another direction, changing weather conditions, or malfunctioning equipment.

An obstacle might require a stunt to bypass, impose disadvantage on a roll, or trigger an accident roll on a normal failure instead of a critical failure. The Warden should declare any obstacles that appear at the top of a chase round, so players can react accordingly.

Resolving the Chase After the contested check the Warden determines if the chase continues. If a fleeing party ends the round at Extreme distance from their pursuers then they escape. Likewise, the chase may end if one party collapses from exhaustion, is tackled, starts combat, is killed or incapacitated, or if someone pulled off a stunt that would end the chase such as successfully hiding.

If the chase continues, the current distance apart is determined and a new round of contested checks begins.

NPCs NPCs use their Instinct value instead of Body save to determine the number of rounds they can chase. This can be adjusted to make sense (especially for human NPCs with high Instinct). This means many alien and supernatural beings can chase flat out for a long time, and will require successful stunts or other actions to flee from (or chase down).

Other considerations Failed checks gain Stress as normal. If you’re involved in a chase in Mothership, it’s probably a pretty stressful situation!

Treat ranges as flexible for determining how far a chase carries out. A chase taking place in twisting back alleys might be shorter overall then one taking place over an expansive field. Likewise, these chase rules likely don’t make sense to use in truly confined areas where it’s difficult to escape.

For a critical success, it may make more sense to award some kind of bonus (This might take the form of an additional chase check as they gain a burst of adrenaline, or advantage on their next check) in addition to making progress.

In the rare case of a double critical success, it may feel boring to simply have a no progress result. Optionally the Warden can give some bonus as well. However both sides should gain a boon in this way.

Optionally, if a side wants to try to push the chase when they are out of moves they can make a Body save. On a failure they immediately collapse, and either way they suffer disadvantage to rolls until they can rest at least 8 hours.

Another optional rule: For every subsequent chase that occurs before resting, you get one fewer checks total. This resets with at least 8 hours of rest.

Summary The chase rules in short:

Determine starting distance (Adjacent, Close, Long) and any obstacles.
Make an opposed check. Use Speed or perform a stunt using an appropriate check.
Continue until the parties end a round in Extreme range, or the chase ends from a stunt, damage, or exhaustion.

Table of results

	Critical Success Side A	Success Side A	Failure Side A	Critical Failure Side A
Critical Success Side B	No Progress. Optional Bonuses.	Side B moves.	Side B moves.	Side B moves. Side A rolls an Accident.
Success Side B	Side A moves.	No Progress.	Side B moves.	Side B moves. Side A rolls an Accident.
Failure Side B	Side A moves.	Side A moves.	No Progress.	Side B moves. Side A rolls an Accident.
Critical Failure Side B	Side A moves. Side B rolls an Accident.	Side A moves. Side B rolls an Accident.	Side A moves. Side B rolls an Accident.	No Progress. Both sides roll Accidents.

Vehicle chases Note: I’m planning on some point making a catalogue of vehicles for Mothership which is where things like this would come into play. Currently there aren’t really any formal rules or stats for vehicles beyond the one in the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit.

In the case of a vehicle chase, fuel is used instead of limited checks (similar to ships on the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit). Different vehicles will have different amounts of fuel, but starting around 10 works, or 5 + 1d10.

The side attempting to flee must spend a minimum amount of fuel based on the starting distance (but can spend more):

Adjacent: 3 Close: 2 Long: 1

The pursuer can spend any amount of fuel they like. Whoever spends more gets advantage on their chase check. The driver of a vehicle decides on the fuel consumption for a round.

The two sides then make an opposed check as above, using the equivalent of a Speed stat for the vehicle (like Thrusters for ships). If there is a top speed listed, use half the top speed as the Speed stat. As above, a stunt can be substituted for a normal Speed roll. The driver of the vehicle decides whether to perform a stunt and makes the roll, or can delegate the roll to a passenger (for example, to fire a weapon out of the window).

If a living thing is involved in a chase with a vehicle it gets a number of checks based on its Body save or Instinct as normal. If the vehicle spends more than its minimum by range as above in a chase with a creature it gets advantage on the check.

Any accidents in a vehicle affect all the passengers, but any Stress or Damage rolls made for a result on the accident table is rolled twice and uses the lower result, as the vehicle affords some protection.

December 15, 2023

New Landing Page

I have a new landing page up at https://octopusinkgames.com. It features a shiny new logo made by Lone Archivist. Also, the blog has now moved here, to blot.

November 27, 2023

Page 1 of 3 Older →