d10 Emergent Transgressions
Or, giving your players a key to the TOMBS
I’m going to get the second half of the title (and the subheading) out of the way first. The Mothership Warden’s Operation Manual gives us a handy checklist called the TOMBS Cycle (Transgression, Omens, Manifestation, Banishment and Slumber), and we’re interested in the first step.
Transgression
Someone knowingly or unknowingly awakens the Horror from its slumber. Horrors occur because at some point a line was crossed that wasn’t meant to be crossed… Transgressions can be active like deciphering the runes on an ancient relic, or passive like docking at a backwater spaceport… Usually, your players only realize that they have Transgressed by the time it’s too late
The whole cycle (and the full description I’ve paraphrased above) is well worth reading. But something I’ve noticed when looking at the popular Mothership modules is that the transgression has often already occurred, and the PCs are simply either a) taking on a dangerous but thinly detailed job b) in the wrong place at the wrong time. In either case, they are not the transgressors.
And to be clear, these are both great. I have run and written modules with this exact premise (indeed Lair of the Space Lamb is THE classic OSR funnel example of b). It is extremely fitting for the game’s blue collar, corporate dystopia themes that you are caught up in events outside your control and/or have no choice but risk your life for a paycheck.
But not all crews are simple Ypsilon-14 package collectors…
(or my personal favourite fan tweak to that module - vending machine restockers)
Emergent
What if that poverty-stricken desperation led to some interesting choices? The players are already vulnerable to temptation, all they need is something to tempt them. You could dangle risky opportunities in front of them, but I think that stumbles a little in Mothership because every job is so risky. So my approach is objects. After all, is it not the Xenomorph egg that birthed this genre? There’s even an example in the Player’s Survival Guide.
Note however, that this example of play (p.36 by the way) gives the players immediate consequences for that action during the module. Again, this is probably the most common approach - it’s the premise behind (very good) modules like Iron Tomb for example.
But here’s where the emergent comes in. If we’re in a campaign, we want the player’s actions to create problems over time and have them combine with other modules and other player choices in unexpected and delightful ways.
Building your Objects
There are two main sources of OSR inspiration here:
Cursed Magic Items. An object that provides a rare or unique benefit, but comes with a price that may range from inconvenient to fatal.
Complicated Treasure. An object with no utility except tremendous value, but which is difficult to own, transport and/or sell. (Something I’ve already written about)
Temptation can therefore be either because it’s useful, valuable or both. The “price” can be from the risk of the object itself and/or how the wider world reacts to you owning it. And the transgression may be simply the passage of time, using it (or using it too much, in defiance of a moral code etc) or other groups become aware of it.
Do not transgress it after midnight
I have put 10 examples below, but first…
A Note on Guilt
To what extent do we want our horror tabletop rpg characters to be responsible for their downfall? There is of course no correct answer, but you can generate some interesting shifts in the tone of a campaign this way. The arc of victim of circumstance > greed > downfall is an interesting one to play out. Note that this can result in player conflict so be prepared to discuss that appropriately out of character.
But what an amazing character exit, eh? Risking everyone else when you try to make a profit, pitching the remaining PCs (and the new one you’ve just rolled up) into an entirely emergent scenario.
d10 Emergent Transgressions
Just an ordinary rucksack full of expensive (100kcr) drugs. However, the handover has to take place on an abandoned station, to make it easy to check you aren’t being tailed or scanned from a distance.
Some spotlessly clean stimpacks with colourful but blurry packaging, similar to one of the major medical corps. You’d have probably died without it, but now you feel strange. As if whatever copied this item didn’t fully understand what it was meant to do.
A rugged and reliable smart gun. It has a personality. It will tell you whether this target deserves it. If not, it will suggest others.
Keycard (Red). Comes with co-ordinates to the long lost ‘Phobos Hanger’. It also disables the sentry guns on the approach, allowing you to fly straight in - whoever created the cards needs an intact ship to escape in.
Alien art statue (250kcr), like a swarm of bees frozen in liquid nitrogen. It evokes nothing in you, but collectors have been known to kill for it, sometimes while the auction is still in progress.
Ship cloaking module - impossible to buy on the open market. When you use it there are shadowy figures in previously empty cyro tubes.
Synthetic spaniel, very loyal. Immortal, desired by many, wails mournfully if not walked.
Malthusian model C food dispenser (discontinued). Quadratically duplicates food and drink offered up to it. The off switch is unreliable.
A coupon good for one job undertaken by Sirius T Xanex, eminent bounty hunter. Using Sirius will only encourage factions in this sector to militarise further. Your subsequent jobs may have more obstacles.
Android spare parts, enough to heal wounds and even replace missing limbs or digits. They were taken from condemned androids who turned against their masters. These robot hands will kill again.