5 Million Worlds Rokaner Report #21, Mothership Month 2025
RR#21 September 2025, Prospero's Dream
Salutations hunglung rebels,
In case you missed the Avatar Alert last week, Mothership Month is upon us:
October 14th through November 13th grab your 1,000 Pounds of Flesh, as over 30 Mothership projects develop and expand upon the legendary X-class space station, Prospero’s Dream from Tuesday Knight Games’ module, A Pound of Flesh.
This year, I’m working with 17 other veteran Mothership designers to bring a chunk of the Dream alive: the Spinal Crux district.
Flatline on the Blocks
Flatline on the Blocks details a 20-block stretch of Prospero’s Dream between the Chop Shop and Tempest HQ that straddles the hull of the outer ring. “Protected” by OcuSec, “supplied” by the Siphon, and “maintained” by the NERCs, the plans of these three seedy factions are about to boil over.
Our team came to Flatline with a laser focus: One Block, one spread, one writer.
Between the thirteen of us, we have 20 Blocks and a tower spread ready, the makings of a companion bonus adventure zine, and in-universe “noodle shop” menu along side.
The writing team submitted a complete draft to Tuesday Knight Games in August, and we are currently wrapping up the first round of development. Meanwhile, I’m playtesting the setting (gone through 8-of-21 Blocks), adding notes for my eventual “full view” development pass in October.
I can’t wait to share more about the Spinal Crux district, and show off what we’ve been working on for 6+ months now. Its purpose lives in that OSR ideal of delivering a density of ideas to help folks make Prospero’s Dream come alive.
Click here to follow the campaign for its launch on 14 October!
All Flesh is Surplus 2025
October is a busy TTRPG month! All Flesh is Surplus is The Lost Bay RPG digital convention, and this year is very special as it covers the new implementation of the rule set, The Lost Bay Reborn, modeled after Trophy Dark. These changes strike at the cinematic heart of the game, and game designer Iko’s French gaming sensibilities.
As part of All Flesh is Surplus, I’ll be running The Hollow Hitchhiker and The Swine in the first week of October! The Hollow Hitchhiker is set in the winding concrete spaghetti of the Highways, cursed with sudden car crashes. In The Swine, your characters were taken, wake up in bloodied, unplugged sports drink freezers, and must escape the lair of The Swine.
If you’d like to see how the game runs, and play along, join The Lost Bay discord community and check out the games:
Click to join The Lost Bay Discord server!
Note: invite link expires October 6th.
All Roads Lead to Rome
As I mentioned last month, even before the first episode dropped, I started writing a hexcrawl set in a city on a Rimward Core world. I got in touch with Brandon Yu a.k.a. Chaoclypse, and he’s deep in sketches for this zine!
I’ve teased this last month, but clearly, my mind has been on Alien: Earth since last month’s debut. Let me lay out my (lukewarm) Hot Take: if you set science fiction on a near-future Earth and ignore climate change, you’re doing the genre and your work a disservice. I was thinking about how humanity could be likened to the aliens as an invasive species to our own planetary biomes, but that’s not on the show’s menu.
Well, that’s where I’m taking it. This planet is a “joint” terraformation project between five Core world companies—Electorenzo Resources, Proxi Marchandises Technologiques, Algernon Astronautics, Xiāo Corporation, and post-Core wars rising star: Daybreak Combine.
If you’ve seen the show, this will sound familiar: an Electorenzo Resources deep-Rim research vessel crashes into the Daybreak Combine capitol. The five alien species break loose in the city. Your player characters are employed/sentenced by Proxi Marchandises Technologiques to recuperate the five species, and are given enhanced (super illegal) Sleeves to accomplish the job.
…And then at some point, I gotta do episode five, too. Holy hell, what great TV that was, eh?
Signing off,
Chris Airiau