#mothership rpg

[christiansorrell]

Cloud Empress Rulebook FOR FREE!

Several months ago, I did development work on Cloud Empress, a standalone, Nausicaa-inspired TTRPG by worlds of watt. It's full, beautiful rulebook recently went up on DriveThruRPG FOR FREE so I think folks should check it out. I'm really proud to have taken part in the project and think the end result is tremendous! Plus, there's so much more coming for it in the near future!

Get your copy HERE!

[lil-tachyon]

Armed guards oversee crowds in the streets outside of the Baronial Palace.

Interior art for Tide World of Mani, the long-awaited sequel to Desert Moon of Karth by Joel Hines. Crowdfunding starts soon so bookmark the kickstarter here!

[whydotheit]

I love when TTRPGs give completely useless definitions or rulings for their own rules, and instead choose to produce pure vibes.

For example, here is Cloud Empress' definition for the "Dance" skill. Mind you, they're not all like this. Every other skill is a definition of the skill, including a use or two beyond the obvious. Only the dance skill is like this.

[technicalgrimoire]

We got to play Cloud Empress last night!

It's a Nausicaa inspired gritty adventure through a dangerous world. I feel like we're just scratching the surface.

Excited for our next adventure!

[anim-ttrpgs]

A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club Showcase #2: Mothership

As some of you may know—and if you don’t, here is a post about it—A.N.I.M. runs a TTRPG book club where the whole club votes on, read, and play indie and indie-ish TTRPGs, then discuss them like a book club, with the ultimate goal of exposing people to new games and supporting smaller TTRPG developers. After each game, we do a “showcase” where quotes are compiled and posted for posterity along with a link to the game’s store page or wherever else you’re supposed to get it. Here is what the book club had to say about the second RPG to win a vote: Mothership by Tuesday Knight Games! Mothership was a game I had been looking forward to playing for a long time and I'm very glad to have gotten to play a one-shot with it. Mothership is for-sure an "OSR" game--relatively short rulebook, just enough rules and mechanics to get you by for exactly the genre it is supposed to emulate, fast and easy character creation, and a high chance for careless player-characters to die badly. If you like the Aliens franchise, you'll love Mothership.

Here is what the TTRPG Book Club generally had to say about Mothership by Tuesday Knight Games:

You can pick up a copy of Mothership here.

And hey, if you're a creator who wants to get their game out there in front of people, join our book club and nominate it!

Playing Mothership here led directly to 9 sales!

If you’re an independant TTRPG developer, come hop in, you can nominate your own game, and having a creator in the discussion is always a plus! Reminder, you can join the discord server from the invite link on our website or right here.

Just a reminder also that A.N.I.M.'s own first big project, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is launching on Kickstarter in April 2024!

Here is a preview of the Kickstarter page!

If you would like to pick up a prerelease copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy along with three adventure modules, two short stories, and a novella, head over to our Patreon page!

If you want to try it before you decide to spend any money, head to our website to download the free demo of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy!

[peregrine-coast]

Milk Bar: sci-fi OSR roleplaying in post-Communist Poland

Bełchatów exemplifies what the paypigs called Total Fucking Vertical Integration. They dug out coal from a hole in the ground 300m deep and 10km across, wheeled it 17km across a field, and burned it to produce 50TWh of energy a year. The city, this city, sprang up around it to keep those functions and those conveyor belts alive at any cost; total fucking vertical integration.

Eventually, the coal ran out. The Soviets found a more lucrative source of energy in the south and they would wheel it back here to justify keeping hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of nowhere. An explosion at the plant sent them reeling, leaving only you—the Communards—to pick up the pieces. 

🧑‍🔬sci-fi OSR roleplaying in the vein of Cairn and Mothership 🇵🇱 set in an alternate timeline, post-Soviet Communist Poland 🏠 unique progression system tied to basebuilding 🥟 pierogi

Coming soon! Follow the project on Kickstarter to get updates 👀

[bionicle-necron]

LETS GOO ITS HERE

I AM SO READY TO DIE IN SPACE

EXPERIENCE HORRORS BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION

BE TORN APART BY LIFE NOT YET SEEN

QUESTION MY OWN HUMANITY

[fiovske]

Do you have any recs for other non-DnD game systems? I've only ever played 5e, and I'm a little intimidated to get into other systems, but I also want to branch out and get away from WOTC's bullshit.

Sure thing! I am also including a link to the itch.io pages since that's where i get most of these games!

Blades In The Dark: i'm mentioning this first bc the rules are very easy to grasp and if you're looking for a setting that has a touch of ghosts and steampunk, this game is the perfect gateway to that! it's the best for a heist i have found and the game mechanics and names are so soo sick here's just a slice from their itch.io page:

personally i find the setting and the stress mechanic very cool, because it takes into account the mental toil that an action can have and i find games with inbuilt consequence mechanics very compelling! it introduced the concept of clocks to me and i am obsessed.

a) adjacent to Blades, are all Forged In The Dark Games which are third-party blades games, and the most notable of them is Scum and Villiany which is space-western setting and also my favorite and if you're looking to play a game in the breadth of star-wars like interplanetary politics and everything, i highly recommend this game! b) if you're looking for a Blades game with mechanics to suit something more royalty-adjacent, with court-politics and agendas and masquerade parties and all, like say d20's court of fey and flowers vibe then i recommend Court Of Blades! I havent gotten around to playing this yet but it looks really promising and i soo badly want to play a game in this setting!

2. The Ground Itself : this is a world-building game. focused on one single place over time and how it changes and how it's people change, the events of this game can be spaced out from a week to several millennia depending on the rolls of ur dice or your choices! i have found that this game serves very well as say, a session zero game also, for setting up a place before you play in it, and not only a very fun session of making a place together for your party to play in, but also not leaving all the work to the gm! so it's a win win situation!

tbh, all games by everest pipkin are very good! i wanna get my hands on world ending game as well bc it is a game about giving your campaign, your world-building and your characters the perfect send-off.

3. Wanderhome : if you're looking for something ghibli-esque (this is the closest i can come to defining this game thru popular media) then i highly recommend wanderhome! it's got a very cozy pastoral vibe to it and the art is really beautiful and you get to pick from a range of animal-folk to play as it's very cool!

also honorable mentions,

a) Sleepaway is a game by the same creator in which ur a camp counsellor to a bunch of misfits and horror stories around campfires ensue! b) Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast which is an upcoming game which you can still back and it looks really interesting so i'd recommend checking it out as well!

4. Lancer: this game has mechs it has space-battles and you get to be a pilot in a future set years in the future and a thousand directions to take ur campaign in! he relationship between pilot and mech is smth that can be so personal.....

i wanna play lancer sometime it has very cool mech designs and it has very much piqued my interest, if i find ppl who wanna play lancer w me im 🏃🏃!

5. Heart The City Beneath : honestly, one of my fave settings of all time, it has strong horror components so mind the cws! but the classes and the game mechanics are very intuitive and overall it helps you not only build a character that feels natural and organic, but since this is a horror setting, things do not have happy endings... however it will ensure that your characters have a well-built journey whose ends will be terrifying and magnificent.

I got introduced to the fallout mechanic through this game and oooo how i love it, it's the perfect blend of your actions have consequences + every consequence is interesting and will affect your character deeply and emotionally, which is <33

this list got too long so i will just mention some more here:

the quiet year (very good map-making game, for before the frost shepherds arrive in winter.)

beam saber (forged in the dark game that deserves its on mention! austin ramsey's games i highly recommend!)

thirsty sword lesbians (ecactly what it says on the tin, i wanna check this game out also)

lotr's one ring rpg (this one is the closest substitute to classic d&d bc lets be real. tolkien is where d&d got it's shit from. and i have heard good things abt this game even tho i've never had the chance to play it)

mothership rpg (space horror whose build mechanics are very easy and user-friendly and i've had a LOT of fun with this!)

orbital (one very beautifully written rpg about life in space and it's only 32 pages but well-worth the time, highly recommend)

that's all i can give off the top of my head, i might've missed a few but these are strong standouts, so i hope u find at least one to your liking!

[zachhazardvaupen]

Experimentations in the lab in ANOTHER BUG HUNT for Mothership RPG.

[indiepressrevolution]

Now at IPR: Graveyard of the Gods

Graveyard of the Gods is an underground adventure for the Mothership® Sci-Fi Horror RPG 1E which can be experienced within an existing campaign, as a primer for a larger campaign, or a resource to be exploited for a Warden's own stories.

The location for Graveyard of the Gods, Netjeru, is not only the biggest motherlode in the galaxy, but also its harshest prison. The corps say that any prisoner that survives 6 months will have their record cleared and be given their freedom. No one has lasted longer than 45 days. Something may be stirring inside Netjeru, but nothing stops the corporate machine. Not even incomprehensible gnostic horror.

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Graveyard-of-the-Gods-Print-PDF.html

[wehavekookies]

New zine new zine \o/

Thousand Empty Light (solo mode and adventure for Mothership RPG) by Alfred Valley. Took me a while to hunt down the edition with the cassette tape, but now it's here and it looks beautiful.

Looking forward to diving into this one

[christiansorrell]

MeatCastle GameWare Annual #1 is out NOW!

My new store is now live! MCGW Annual #1, a zine collecting all of the previously digital-only supplements and freebies I've released over the last year or so into one, eclectic collection of TTRPG goodies, is now available IN PRINT.

Annual #1 includes supplemental material for Mothership, Mork Borg, system-free bits for both fantasy and sci-fi, plus 2 microgames (including A Sunless Space, my Andor-inspired game of rebellion against an endless empire).

Pre-orders will run via my store through the end of the month. On Nov. 1st, I'll be ordering the print run and they'll ship out ASAP at that point.

You can get a print copy HERE!

Keeping in spirit with the TTRPG Freebies from the Missives, you can also get the digital version of Annual #1 as a pay-what-you-want product on Itch (which, of course, includes for FREE). Reviews, shares, comments, etc. are all appreciated!

Lastly, if you'd like to get future supplements like this straight to your inbox, I do one each month as part of my monthly TTRPG newsletter, Missives from the MeatCastle. You can subscribe HERE!

[lil-tachyon]

Riding the endless tide...

Cover art for Tide World of Mani, a new Mothership RPG setting by Joel Hines! Funding on kickstarter now!

[thelostbaystudio]

Hey folks,

the pre-launch KS page of OUTER RIM: UPRISING is live! ORU is a bundle for the sci-fi survival horror RPG Mothership. The bundle is packed with 15+ 100% original entries from seasoned indie Mothership designers. All items are 1 Edition (which means the new one!) compatible. Below is some info on the bundle and pics of some entries.

OrU builds a huge setting, at the fringes of the galaxy, where corrupt corps fight rebel factions. Each item of the bundle can be used independently, but the items are also tied together by a common implied setting, sharing NPCs, story lines etc. A Campaign Handbook acts as the connective tissue of the bundle: adding factions, procedures, locations etc.

Half of the bundle items are written in a system neutral way, and can be used with any RPG.

We've just ignited the pre-launch page here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/outer-rim-uprising, if you dig the project give it a follow, as indie publishers it means a hell of lot to receive the community support.

About this, if you are a blogger, streamer, podcaster and want to talk about this, see drafts or organize an actual play please reach out we'd be happy to help.

Below are some details on a couple of entries, they are sick!

The Hunger in Achernar, zine by D. Kenny (designer of Nirvana on fire)

Survive the void-haunted halls of a cursed derelict; solve the mystery of a missing ship, an experimental hyperdrive test, and a cultist plot; or save the galaxy from a taint leaking through a crack in the universe. Choose one in “The Hunger in Achernar”, a MOTHERSHIP RPG adventure.

BLINK, zine by David Blandy (designer of Eco MOFOS!)

In this short guide to faster-than-light travel, we’ll show you how to bring the mind-bending possibilities of instantaneous jumping between two distant points in space to your game.

Rusted to the Core, zine by Chris Airiau

The androids on Poe-V Station are on strike. Descend through the gas giant’s toxic clouds to uncover how the source of this disruption goes deeper than worker mistreatment. A faction-based adventure.

Surviving Machine parts, zine by Zach Hazard Vaupen

Out in the fringes of the system, a type of cybernetic implants called Machine Parts are popular with those who are savvy enough to find and afford them. Commonly made with recalled corpo tech and stolen military/alien technology, these implants are highly illegal and especially dangerous. This document covers 12 different Machine Parts and their consequences. Can you survive Machine Parts?

Sentience Assessment Procedure, player facing accessory, by Nyhur (Alien Armory) and IKO

SAP cutting-edge, neuro-semantic analysis technology allows management, officials, and security personnel to perform human/android triage effectively. SAP toolkit is portable, works in any-G environment, and can also be performed remotely.

Outer Rim: Uprising Campaign Handbook, zine by all the designers of the bundle

The connective tissue of the bundle

I'll stop here :) that's roughly one third of the items included in the bundle, I'll share more info in the next few weeks

Give it a follow here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thelostbay/outer-rim-uprising

[pradaldi]

Abilities Considered Unnatural, is an RPG I made maps, covers and illustrations for. Thanks to Joel Hines and Dani Liebster for trusting me on this project : https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/391762

[anim-ttrpgs]

A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club Showcase #1: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

As some of you may know—and if you don’t, here is a post about it—A.N.I.M. runs a TTRPG book club where the whole club votes on, read, and play indie and indie-ish TTRPGs, then discuss them like a book club, with the ultimate goal of exposing people to new games and supporting smaller TTRPG developers. After each game, we do a “showcase” where quotes are compiled and posted for posterity along with a link to the game’s store page or wherever else you’re supposed to get it. Here is what the book club had to say about the first game to win a vote: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, which happens to be our game. We didn’t rig the vote but the fact that we run and advertise the book club probably resulted in a disproportionate number of members who wanted to try out Eureka, because they would’ve had to have been following us to even know about the club otherwise. But, that is why we have it set up so games that win have to sit out a round before being nominated again, to give everyone else a chance.

Anyway, here is what the book club had to say about Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, the the urban-fantasy-noir horror-mystery investigative RPG by A.N.I.M. (That’s us.)

(some names censored at user request)

And here is where you can currently pick up a copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, along with a huge bundle of other A.N.I.M. work, all for $5. The rulebook will remain available for this price until after we launch our Kickstarter in or around April 2024.

Get it here.

Playing this game in the RPG book club led to 3 sales!

If $5 is too rich for your blood, you can pick up the free demo version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy from our website along with a free demo mystery adventure module to go with it.

If you’d like to join our book club, the discord invite link can be found if you visit our website. At the time of writing this, Mothership RPG by Tuesday Knight Games just won the vote, so we’re all preparing to read and play that.

Mothership 0e is actually free, but if you happen to be thinking “oh I’d love to join but I don’t have the money to buy and read a new RPG every month”, don’t worry, while we encourage buying the game yourself to support the creators, when necessary A.N.I.M. does fork up the money to make sure that everyone has a copy.

If you’re an independant TTRPG developer, come hop in, you can nominate your own game, and having a creator in the discussion is always a plus! Mothership winning the vote has already led to 7 sales at the time of writing this! Reminder, you can join the discord server from the invite link on our website.