How to play Mothership

How to play

Character creation: Roll 2d10+25 for each of your four Stats (Strength, Speed, Intellect and Combat) and 2d10+10 for each of your three Saves (Sanity, Fear and Body). Pick a class: Marine, Android, Scientist or Teamster. Each one adjusts your numbers, gives you starting skills and has a Trauma Response that affects the whole crew. Roll 1d10+10 for Health, note your Maximum Wounds (2, or 3 for Marines and Androids), start with 2 Stress, and roll for your loadout, a trinket and a patch.

Stat Checks and Saves: When failure would cost something, roll d100 and try to get under the relevant Stat or Save. A Trained, Expert or Master Skill that fits adds +10, +15 or +20 to the number you're rolling under. A roll of 90 to 99 always fails. Doubles are criticals: a critical success if you made it and a critical failure if you didn't. 00 is always a critical success and 99 always a critical failure. With Advantage [+] you roll twice and keep the better result, and with Disadvantage [-] the worse.

Stress and Panic: Every failed Stat Check or Save gives you 1 Stress, up to a maximum of 20. A critical failure forces a Panic Check, and the Warden can call for one when something truly horrifying happens. Roll the d20 Panic Die and try to roll higher than your current Stress. Roll equal to it or lower and you look up the result on the Panic Table, which runs from an adrenaline rush to lasting conditions. To shed Stress, rest somewhere safe and make a Rest Save using your worst Save.

Violent encounters: Fights run in rounds of about 10 seconds. The Warden describes the threat, everyone says what they do, and then checks, damage and Wounds are rolled. To attack, make a Combat Check; on a success you roll the weapon's damage, and on a failure the situation gets worse. Armour ignores any hit that deals less than its Armor Points, but a hit that matches or beats them destroys it. Cover works the same way against gunfire.

Wounds and death: Damage comes off your Health. When Health reaches zero you take a Wound: roll a d10 on the Wounds Table for the damage type, such as Blunt Force, Bleeding or Gunshot, then reset your Health to maximum minus any leftover damage. Once you have taken your Maximum Wounds, the Warden rolls a hidden Death Save, revealed only when someone checks your vitals.

The Warden runs modules: The Warden (the GM) runs a module, a ready-made location with its dangers and secrets, often printed as a short pamphlet. Another Bug Hunt, in the Core Set, is the official introductory module.

Strategy

Survival first: Mothership rewards cautious, even paranoid play. The rules only ask for a roll when failure would cost something, so describe careful, well-prepared actions and the Warden may not need a roll at all. Scan rooms, check the air, listen at doors and always know your way out before you go in. Manage Stress like ammunition: Every failed roll adds Stress, and higher Stress makes a Panic Check both likelier to fail and worse when it does. Stop and rest when you can: a Rest Save uses your worst Save and cuts Stress by the ones digit rolled, while a failure adds 1. Between jobs, Shore Leave in port can turn Stress into permanently better Saves, so surviving is how characters grow. Know your Trauma Response: Each class changes how the crew copes. When a Marine Panics, every nearby crewmate must make a Fear Save. Nearby crewmates make Fear Saves with Disadvantage while an Android is close. When a Scientist fails a Sanity Save, everyone close gains 1 Stress. A Teamster can take Advantage on one Panic Check each session. Plan who stands next to whom. Fight only when you must: A Combat Check can fail like any other roll, and a failure makes the situation worse and adds Stress. Armour stops small hits but breaks against a big one, and shooting from cover leaves you out of cover until your next turn. Running, hiding, sealing a bulkhead or venting a room are often the winning moves. Play to your skills: A relevant skill adds up to +20 to the number you roll under, which is a big swing on d100. Tell the Warden how your training applies, and let whoever has the right skill take the risky roll. Keep the crew alive: Treat bleeding at once and get the wounded to medical care, because Wounds cause lasting injuries and the next one might be your last.

Tips

- Only roll when you must: careful description can let the Warden skip the check. - Each failed roll adds 1 Stress, and high Stress makes Panic likelier and worse. - On a Panic Check you want to roll higher than your Stress on the d20. - Rest somewhere safe to lose Stress; the Rest Save uses your worst Save. - Armour ignores small hits, but one hit that matches its Armor Points destroys it. - Shooting from cover leaves you exposed until your next turn. - Know your class's Trauma Response and where your crewmates are standing. - Keep a new character in mind: the rulebook reckons the average character survives about four sessions.

Players and time

A Warden and a small crew of players; sessions usually last a few hours. Many modules are one-shots that fit a single session, and larger ones support short or long campaigns. Characters have no levels, so a new character can join a campaign at any point.

Starting modules

Another Bug Hunt, in the Core Set, is the official introductory adventure. The Haunting of Ypsilon 14, a short pamphlet in the publisher's starter collection, is another short starter module from the publisher. When your group knows the rules, Dead Planet, A Pound of Flesh and Gradient Descent are larger official modules, and many more come from other designers.

The horror tone

Mothership is a horror game, not a power fantasy. Characters are fragile, there are no levels, and growth comes from surviving and turning Stress into better Saves on Shore Leave. The Warden's job is to build dread and spell out the likely cost of each choice. The rulebook is written for mature audiences and suggests going over the Panic Table as a group and removing any results that don't fit your table.

Common beginner mistake

Treating every threat as a fight. Combat Checks fail like any other roll, every failure adds Stress, and a couple of Wounds can end a character. Investigate first, then hide, seal the door or run, and fight only when you have no better option.