I love horror. I love horror tabletop role playing games. I especially love horror games set in the bleak, cold, dark, claustrophobic, depths of space.
Mothership RPG from Tuesday Knight Games is one of those sort of games. It has the feel of Alien or Event Horizon. You get to play out a sci-fi horror story about the terrible things you’ll find while floating through the outer reaches of the galaxy.
Similar to games like Alien RPG, Death in Space or You’re in Space and Everything’s Fucked (another indie TTRPG I want to play). It has a simple set of rules that are easy to learn but with characters that have depth and complexity.
You can choose from one of four different player classes. Crew, Scientist, Android or Marine.
The game mechanics are simple to understand and the character sheet has a guide for creating a character, which is useful given the limited lifespan that is a hallmark of the genre. The sheet is actually a master class of design. Part flow chart, part character sheet, part rules tutor. Any aspiring designer should look at the Mothership character sheet and then go back and restart the work they have put into the sheets for their game.
The GM sets the tone. The scary background hum of a Type-2 Fusion reactor is audible through my headphones as we awaken from our slumber. The floor of the cryogenic chamber cold as my bare feet touch the ground for the first time... and before I know it, the old familiar vomit from the soles of your shoes feeling as the dropship detaches...
There are some really great single page scenarios for this game (shout out to The Haunting of Ypsilon 14 and Sargasso Cluster) and the published material is an evocative, elegant treat. In Yet Another Bug Hunt you will find some of the tightest prose I've ever read in an adventure. Pared back to the barest minimum, yet bursting with flavor, atmosphere and terror. It minimizes GM workload and is an amazing and eminently playable adventure.
The almost surgical minimalism that Mothership creators have approached their adventure writing, actually made me ponder some fairly fundamental pillars of the industry. In a world where campaign books are 400 pages long, $60, and represent aspirational intentions that rarely ever see completion, a single piece of paper that can provide 3-8 hours of intense and amazing game play is frankly revolutionary.
Before you all start @'ing me, I know Mothership isn't the first game to do this but given I'm writing about how much I love this game let's just accept that its very strong work and move on.
In summary, I really love this game. I'm running a campaign at Gary Con in a few months and it will be a regular part of my home rotation without a doubt.