5MW Rokaner Report #11, Free Bifold Depthcrawl, MoshMo Interviews!
RR#10, Gilgamesh-VII, November 2024, Raider Bounty of Giglamesh-VII
Goodday space folk,
November has been an extravaganza of Mothership Month madness. To top it off, I am at this very moment in London for Dragonmeet! I had some delicious ramen with the Johnson Squared team, and headed out soon with the Lost Bay team. So yeah, if you happen to be in the city, drop by tomorrow (i.e. Saturday, Nov 30), at The Lost Bay Studios booth B6/C6 on the first floor to say hi!
Not Enough Scoundrels, Devil's Due, and Johnson Squared are doing amazingly well--all the Mothership Month projects have been a hit, thanks for your support folks! A quick summary of what I've been up to:
I’ve also got more mini-interviews lined up, so without further ado:
The Iron Hive, Abrah
Chris: Hola Abrah, thanks for joining the newsletter! Must say, I really enjoyed your energy during your interview with Cameron, and especially hearing your dedication to the LATAM indie ttrpg scene! I’m a novice Trekkie and this really speaks to my belief in celebrating Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, I’m glad you’ve brought The Iron Hive to Mothership Month. So, can you give our readers a run down of your module?
Abrah: Hola Chris! So glad you liked it, I was a bit nervous but Cameron’s energy is so contagious that it felt like I was talking with a long-lost friend, speaking of, yes! I’ve made some cool friends by spending the last few years going to local conventions, and it all felt like I was gathering a team for a heist, knowing who was going to love which idea and finally having the perfect excuse to work with them, so naturally, I don’t have “workers” or “hired artists”, they’re my friends and we are just having a blast together! (Just in case, they are still getting paid.)
And as for The Iron Hive, well, it’s an “extremely densely populated and largely lawless” space station, it’d be classified as an X-Class Port, with sectors that have grown out of resources and places left behind by corporations. Refugees, mercs, and criminals all worked together to build a place to call home, the result being this mixture of a treacherous place where conflict is around the corner, but you also have the inevitable touch of humanity, the need to have safe places within The Heart of The Iron Hive where the community can gather and spend time together, understand why people fall in love with it and never leave.
Chris: For sure, a honeypot, I get it, made even more sticky by the stations “sweet” AI, haha. Like you expressed in your Panic Table interview, I as well am just sick of the ever-present boring evil AI, so your AI NPC Xiao Mifeng comes as a breath of fresh air. That said, a helpful and protective AI can also be a hindrance for PCs, especially the criminally-minded! Can you speak (or rather write, ha) a bit about how the criminal element of The Iron Hive and Xiao Mifeng interact in your module?
Abrah: Oh that’s a really good question, since she was envisioned as a personnel assistant, to help traverse caverns and promote safety precautions. And even after all these years, she’s still just trying to be of help, and to achieve this, she trojan-horses herself into any device in the Hive with a screen, so you might be doing the most heinous act and she will be there, ready to offer help to keep you safe. She’s not a super computer or an advance piece of AI, but she’s beloved by all, and that might be just enough.
Do keep in mind that this is my (current) Xiao Mifeng, if you want her to be more strict with rules, to have more power over the station, or even (if you dare) make her a bit more evil, you can! I love seeing what my ideas prompt others to create, maybe your’s will be a Clippy-like entity that pops up “It seems like you’re trying to indulge in some trafficking, here are the closest Silk Road entrances for you!”, or maybe an AI to rival SHODAN and Monarch. How will these shape your Iron Hive? Well that’s up to you!
Chris: For sure, and it’s always exciting to see what Wardens cook up. That spirit of modularity is one of those big parts that makes our hobby so enticing, isn’t it? Thanks so much for sharing your module with us, Abrah, :)
Operation Golden Cut, Julius Karajos
Chris: Ahoj Julius! Always glad to see a fellow European in the scene, and doubly so to see their work so well received! Gotta say, Operation Golden Cut seems like some seriously grim Mothership, the way you’ve painted the landscape is equally horrifying and awe-inducing. Can you give our readers who might not know a run-down on your Mothership Month project?
Julius: Hey Chris, thanks for having me here!
About Operation Golden Cut, I’m a big fan of war drama movies, mostly anti-war films - like Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and so on. I wanted to combine that tone with the vibe of Kelly’s Heroes and give it a horror twist. Because I think Mothership has a lot of alien horror, but not enough human horror. When you listen to true crime podcasts or watch documentaries about war, it becomes clear that we’re far worse than any beast from outer space. I wanted to explore that and showcase the darker side of humanity.
This module focuses on human suffering - what we’re capable of doing to one another when given the tools of war and driven by the lust for riches. It’s about seeing how far we’ll go for greed, testing whether gold is stronger than our humanity.
Mechanically, it’s a map-crawl powered by random tables, which are two of my favorite things in RPG modules. So naturally I went with that. :)
Chris: One theme I’ve noticed throughout your work is a focus on the maritime, and the Liquid Gold of Operation Golden Cut very much feels like a pirate’s dream, haha. What do you think enamors you with these themes, and how do they appear in this war-torn module?
Julius: So, I love maritime horror (I probably own all the thalassophobia modules that have come out for Mothership so far) and I also love pirates (Pirate Borg is my second-favorite RPG after Mothership). But I didn’t focus on that theme here - maybe it’s my subconscious. :D
This module actually started as an entry for a small dungeon jam in a Czech RPG community. My prompt words were: golden cut, hexagon, obsidian, ozone, glass, disinfection, chitin. That’s where it all began, and you can find those elements - big or small - scattered throughout the module.
Over time, this little module (2 pages at first) grew on me, and I kept expanding it. Then MoshMo24 came along, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to bring it to life. Almost like fate! So here I am, and I’m enjoying this ride so much.
Chris: Haha, it’s true that a lot of folks have the same sentiment! That destiny dealt us a kind hand at the right moment. I’m glad your project is doing so well, and looking forward to your military horror!
The Dose Makes the Poison, Andrew C. Manson
Chris: Hello Andrew! Lemme tell ya, I’m always glad to chat with someone on my timezone, haha, glad to have you on. The first thing I want to share with folks is the incredible video you produced for The Dose Makes the Poison. It bleeds with dastardly Bioshock vibes. What can you tell us about your Mothership Month module, The Dose Makes the Poison?
Andrew: Ha, well, yes ‘Bioshock in space’ would be my pitch headline, definitely. I love the retro-future environment of the Bioshock world and I wanted a way that could bring that into Mothership. Then I read the phrase “the dose makes the poison” somewhere, which basically means anything is a poison if you take enough, I thought about making a retro branded Pharma company and that was the birth of the module.
Thanks for the video shout out, I’m lucky enough to know a really talented animator called Austin Temby who I cornered into doing that for me using Norgad’s cover art. For me the video was very important to quickly set the tone we were aiming for. Also from a public perception point of view, I’m a complete newbie - basically a Discord lurker - so I wanted something of a sufficient production level to show I’m serious about delivering a quality product. Our 10K stretch goal is the whole TV ad, to be used in game,we’re about 50% of the way towards funding that at the mo. I have had the jingle stuck in my head for 3 months now which might eventually drive me insane, but hopefully not before delivering the module.
Chris: Ah right, so you’re probably getting sick of hearing the Bioshock comparisons, haha. Maybe instead, what could you tell us about how your module differs from this video game classic, and maybe dive a bit into the seemingly benevolent faction Health Universal?
Andrew: Well, I didn’t want a module that would potentially force players into a retro-future sci-fi world for the rest of their campaign, so I’ve set the scenario on a space station, branded up by in the retro style of Hope’s Serum (a energy and mood enhancing biotonic, well known in the blue-collar world) that the players can just drop into and then leave to pastures new, if they survive.
We unlocked our first two stretch goals on day 1, so we’re now going to be adding in additional pages to the module that give more background on Hope’s Pharma and a bunch of rumors and plot hooks so you can bring them into your wider game. There’s also going to be two other Pharma rivals you can potentially work for (or against): The Suckler Family, who are your typical clinical drug corporation with lots of military contracts, and Health Universal.
Health Universal are the supposed good guys in this trio, who claim to want to bring health care and medical aid to all, not just those who can afford it. While originally this might have been the case, unfortunately now HU more commonly extorts and controls drug supply to the poorest sectors in the Mothership world. In a serendipitous turn of events, you told me the PMC in Not Enough Scoundrels was called Universal Allies so it seemed only fitting that they should be the muscle for Health Universal, so I’m loving that we’ve now got a bit of an Easter egg crossover between the two modules now too!
Chris: Yes, that’s been one of the most serendipitous cross-overs! As a Warden, I’m always a fan of simple connections between modules, so hopefully folks find it useful.
Rebel Bounty of Gilgamesh-VII
This month’s freebie is a bounty hunting depthcrawl through the Undercity of Gilgamesh-VII, co-written by me and seven Mothership Month creators:
R.A. Creedon, Straight Arrows
Adrian Hunt, 90 Seconds to Midnight
Julius Karajos, Operation Golden Cut
Ben King, Knowledge Asymmetry
Andrew C. Manson, The Dose Makes the Poison
Abrah Nassif, The Iron Hive
Elliot Norwood, Death Pays All Debts
Art by Perplexing Ruins
Co-writing a depthcrawl to make a FF7 Midgar-inspired undercity depthcrawl was a lot of fun, but… I am a lame-o and did not finish my part in time for the Mothership 3rd party license. Sorry folks, it’s been a crazy crazy month.
This adventure will be submitted to the Mothership Month itch game jam, and hopefully I can have it to y’all for the next Avatar Alert on Tuesday!
Signing off,
Chris Airiau