Making Alternate Mothership Classes
Generating playtest material for an existing game can often simply involve deriving the designer’s framework and then iterating on it.
After a first run at a Mothership campaign last year (commencing with Lair of the Space Lamb) I’m gearing up for another one later this summer. As before, this will be a “semi-open table” based around pre-written modules (including a couple of my own, but the starter will be Norgad’s recently released Brackish).
Unlike last year, there will be some effort to create a loose narrative framework — but that’s a subject for another blog post. I’ve written some alternate Panic Tables, sketched out a couple of small modules and but today I’ve decided to broaden the character classes on offer.
But why?
It continues to surprise me that there’s relatively little hacking/expanding of the Mothership system itself, in contrast to the vast number of excellent, imaginative modules (both first and third party). There have been some examples of this sort of thing of course, such as Octopus Ink’s Rimward Classes (which I’ll likely also offer as an option to my players).
But more than that, I find this sort of exercise helps me understand why design decisions were made, which in turn sharpens my own abilities. This is why I use the word expanding rather than hacking — all of this is intended to work with, adding options to Mothership rather than replacing or changing parts of it.
Anyway, onto the classes!
Biologics
Clones and other flesh constructs. Rarer than Androids, there is nevertheless a demand for carefully grown and calibrated organic sentience. This might be for security reasons, an environment uniquely hostile to mechanical lifeforms or concerns related to [REDACTED – MONARCH PROTOCOL].
+10 to all stats // +1 Max Wounds
Trauma Response: Whenever you fail a body save or take a wound, all close friendly players make a sanity save.
Skills: 1 Expert Skill and a Trained Skill prerequisite. Bonus: 2 Trained Skills
Both Dune and Mickey 17 got me thinking about this, in addition to Gradient Descent. I wanted it to be more general than just “clone” and allow different players to put their own spin on it similar to the Android anti-canon approach. They benefit from increased toughness due to being ‘improved’ over random natural evolution… but that means their reactions (or suddenly visible innards) add a layer of visceral horror to anyone seeing them harmed.
They are deliberately kept as all-rounders (created for a specific purpose) with open skills and high stats… but low saves. We might assume they are naïve and inexperienced, or even expendable…
(Despite being cyberpunk, Netrunner is an overlooked source of potential Mothership inspiration)
Colonists
Some would describe these hardy folks as the true backbone of space. To them, often going years at a time between resupply ships, community is everything. They are farmers, explorers and settlers who are used to making the best of things.
+10 to 2 stats // +10 to 1 save // +1 Max Wounds
Trauma Response: Whenever a close friendly player panics, gain 2 stress.
Skills: Botany, Wilderness Survival. Bonus: 2 Trained Skills
If the teamster is focused around the industrialisation of space, then we have a gap both in the fiction and skill tree for those settling it. I suspect the focus towards the former was to emphasise the hunger for resources by megacorps — with the implication that there are billions of humans off-screen in crowded conditions, separate from the frontier of the Rim.
Hardiness and self-sufficiency gets them an extra wound, similar to Marines but without the combat focus. Everything else is kept fairly general as they won’t achieve the all-rounder stat/save heights of the Teamster, but can still specialise and rely on being tough. Since they’re relying on those around them, they get stressed out as panic spreads through the group. They’re one step away from a space peasant mob after all…
Doctor Who Project: The Krotons – Movement Point
(Variations on These Guys turn up in every other classic Dr Who story)
Dealer
While Teamsters are the actual labour force of space, there is a smaller group who trade, organise and handle logistics. These are the merchants, the negotiators and the information brokers. Their confidence and informal leadership is useful, until it fails.
+10 Intellect // +20 Fear Save // +10 to 1 Stat
Trauma Response: Whenever you critically fail a check or save, all close friendly players make a panic check.
Skills: Rimwise, Linguistics. Bonus: 1 Expert Skill OR 2 Trained Skills
I played around with various ideas for ‘Executive’ or ‘Officer’, since both feature in Aliens. Ultimately though, I decided that in a world of freelancer characters things should remain less formal (and you can still start with the Command skill by putting a specific flavour on the Scientist). As such, the Scientist is the closest comparison here – a boost to Fear Save is powerful, so I didn’t give them much else and held back on the skills.
The leadership aspect (in the absence of defined skills) then emerges by being more likely to be unafraid, but also trigger a response when they seem to be really struggling. This might need to be just stats or just saves — we’ll find out in playtesting!
Characters in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Quark's Bar
(Still the best example even though it doesn’t work for a human only setting)
Voidborn
Those that have lived their whole lives on ships, stations and asteroids are already starting to diverge from the rest of humanity. This natural adaptation leaves them mentally resilient in the vast darkness, but lacking physical power.
+15 Speed // -10 Strength // +15 Sanity Save // +15 Fear Save
Trauma Response: Advantage on panic checks in spaceships. Disadvantage when on a planetary surface.
Skills: Zero-G. Bonus: 1 Trained Skill and 2 Expert Skills
The Expanse inspiration is pretty straightforward here. Leaning on the long-term effects of reduced gravity feels appropriate in Mothership’s hard sci-fi universe, while the implied evolution/change also fits the horror themes (even if they’re simply another route towards exploitation by those in power). Mechanically, none of the original classes get a speed boost, so that seemed a logical step, as did reducing strength. Boosting saves and skills is perhaps overpowered, but I like the idea of them being educated/experienced due to a hostile environment. The trauma response then fully leans into this idea of a glass cannon - depending on the twists and turns of a campaign, your character might be a penalised or gain a benefit from module to module. Note that space stations and asteroids are intended to give no advantage or disadvantage — a classic example of where you realise just how hard it is to frame rules with a succinct character sheet.