Table Toppin': Mothership and other Role Playing Games Created 3 weeks ago2025-03-05 11:43:14 UTC by monster_urby

Heyo, TWHL. Long time, no post.

I wanted to put something up on the site as I've only really been active on Discord. Great as that is, itseems like a difficult place to post such a broad topic without the conversation going off on any number of tangents and eventually vanishing as the talk moves on. So, I have picked up a new hobby in the last six months or so and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Tabletop RPGs. Once upon a time, in my younger years, I always considered Dungeons & Dragons to be uber nerd stuff. I used to say "I'm not that much of a nerd. That's for like... the nerds of nerds."

A little backstory: Back in September of last year, I was going through a particularly rough patch at work. I was struggling to get stuff done and I constantly felt as though I was in way over my head. Imposter syndrome is a bitch. It reached a point where I spilled my guts to a colleague who I'm pretty good friends with, and the following day HE happened to be the one to answer the phone when I called in sick. Hearing my voice over the phone and recalling out conversation from the last 24 hours, he put two and two together.

He reached out to me outside of work and suggested I seek therapy on the company dollar, which I did. Our little 30 person web design agency was bought by an international corporation back in 2021, one of the perks of which is a healthcare plan. So I had six sessions of therapy for my anxiety and my confidence at work which actually worked wonders. I'm now going to be one of those irritating people that says, "If you have the means to do so, if something is bothering you, consider therapy." It really does help. Seriously. However any further sessions would require a payment plan and I simply didn't have the funds. However, the colleague who recommended the therapy approached me once again and asked, "Do you play D&D or any tabletop games by any chance?" to which I said I didn't. He told me that he is a DM (dungeon master for the uninitiated) and was looking to start a new campaign in a game that had recently been greenlit. That game was Mothership.

Mothership is a Sci-Fi Horror RPG where you don't play as a gallant paladin or a hardy dwarf fighter. More often than not, you are an insignificant, terrified colonist being thrown into a nightmare beyond your comprehension. There are four classes:

• Teamsters: Your average blue collar workers with a vast range of skills.
• Marines: The muscle, who excel at most things physical and violent.
• Scientists: The brains that can use their minds to explain the oddities they encounter.
• Androids: Artificial humanoids that have a knack for interfacing with all things cybernetic.

I will post the same video that was sent to me as this took my initial interest and shot it into the stratosphere (because space, right?) but the best thing about Mothership is that you can get started without spending a penny. All of the rules and tables are included in the Player's Guide Book which can be downloaded as a free PDF and you can use the Mothership companion app to make your character, manage stats and do dice rolls, also for free. There are pre-made modules and stories and campaigns are where you need to start spending money if you want to. A single short module costs as little as £2. I jumped straight in to running game for two people (Archie and Scoots here on TWHL) with just the free player guide, a single £2 module and ZERO DM experience and that game is still going five sessions strong and several weeks later.

So I guess my question was, are any of the few active TWHL members also TTRPG players? What are your preferred games and have you heard of Mothership before? It would certainly get my very enthusiastic recommendation if you're looking for a change.

I wonder if it could be possible to adapt the rules into a Half-Life themed campaign... it seems like it would be very possible. Hmmm.

Here's the video I mentioned:

Haven't watched the video yet, but I think the Alien RPG is a bit along the same lines. Always wanted to try it and now Mothership is on my list.

I don't play a broad range of TTRPGs, just D&D. Invitation is still open to join us someday if you want some classic high fantasy.

Invitation is still open to join us someday if you want some classic high fantasy.

I appreciate that. It's still awkward as Hell getting a daytime slot on a weekly basis, especially during daylight. Our office Mothership game is Tuesday nights from 19:30(GMT), right after the kids go to bed. The game I run is... "whenever we're up for it" aka 22:00pm or later at the weekends.

That being said, I finally played D&D as a one-shot a few months ago and we're having another tomorrow night at the office as a nerdy leaving party for one of our developers. A bunch of them are renting a cottage in Wales in April for the long Easter weekend as well, for a big weed and D&D bender. I can't go to that. One of the girls even offered to cover my expenses but it's more of a childcare and work commitment thing. I am sad.

I'm a D&D player myself, but haven't had the chance to explore any other games yet (apparently Call of Cthulhu is pretty great from what I've heard from friends) but can definitely check out Mothership!

About Tabletop. I did my first green-stuff miniature today. Have more to learn first.

EDIT:
Tomorrow I will paint it!

EDIT2:

By the by, for anyone remotely interested in the Mothership TTRPG, do give that Quinn's quest video a look and if you're still not entirely convinced you can grab the Player's Handbook from Tuesday Knight Games for FREE! That's right here in PDF format.

Granted you would need to spend a little money on a module or two to get an idea of how enemies and different scenarios are presented to the players, but those cost next to nothing and can often be printed onto a single sheet of A4. I've been running one such module called Moonbase Blues for Archie and Scoots and after last night's session we've gotten just over 15 hours of fun out of it. 15 hours (potentially) for $2 if you get it direct from the creators on itch: That's right here.

I dunno, man. I just think there's something very special about a game system this cheap and accessible. What I will say and it's something I've seen some players struggle with is that there aren't any systems for charisma or stealth or perception and so on. It really comes down to having a conversation and making a case for your character's ability to do something. This MAY then result in a roll depending on the GM's decision. This requires some degrees of assertiveness and I've seen more introverted people get buried during certain moments. Personally, I much prefer that to, "Roll a stealth check. Oh 18? OK, you are hidden." Meh.

Yeah, how the game is played matters a lot. I had a great GM once that made sure the players engaged with the game through their characters and discouraged meta gaming. Often made a point that characters don't need to roll for things they can do (e.g. a character twice as strong as the average person can easily break down a rotten door and don't need to roll for that), only for things they need to attempt to do (with the GM having the final say about which is which, of course).
That way the focus was on more fluid roleplaying than constantly asking the GM "can I do this?" or "can I roll for this?". The GM also told us to ask the rest of the party in-character for advice instead of asking him and such, which helped a lot with encouraging the players to interact with each other and kept our more introverted players more in the loop so to speak. 🙂

I downloaded those Mothership PDFs and the character sheet was already very space sci-fi, can tell there can be lots of nerdy fun with this! Will give the survival guide a read later!

Colored the figure today! This is the last post from me involving green-stuff and the Grenade Maniac. Maybe for now.

@Meerjel01: At least he looks as though he's having a good time.

Yeah, how the game is played matters a lot. I had a great GM once that made sure the players engaged with the game through their characters and discouraged meta gaming. Often made a point that characters don't need to roll for things they can do (e.g. a character twice as strong as the average person can easily break down a rotten door and don't need to roll for that), only for things they need to attempt to do (with the GM having the final say about which is which, of course).
That way the focus was on more fluid roleplaying than constantly asking the GM "can I do this?" or "can I roll for this?". The GM also told us to ask the rest of the party in-character for advice instead of asking him and such, which helped a lot with encouraging the players to interact with each other and kept our more introverted players more in the loop so to speak.

Yeah, that does sound like a great DM and sounds a lot like the guy running our office game of Mothership currently. Also, while the Mothership Player Guide gets down to the nitty-gritty and rules and tables and how to play the game, there is also a Warden's (DM's) guide for running the game. To my delight, there's barely any mention of the game's rules in there. It's literally a how to guide about running a fun TTRPG. I've seen video reviews that describe the Warden's Guide as an essential read for budding DM's for ANY game, not just Mothership.

To give you an example, since you mentioned unnecessary rolls. I try to do the same thing. The game I am running had a scientist player and a marine player. Whenever they encountered a dead body, the scientist would usually need to roll a fear save. The marine? Nah. He's seen this kinda thing before. Hell, he's DONE this kinda thing before.