Mothership to bring its Alien-esque, sci-fi horror RPG to a boxed set
Zero gravity, zero chance of survival.
Award-winning tabletop RPG Mothership has announced a first edition boxed set to be crowdfunded on Kickstarter beginning November 2nd. It will package together everything players need to experience the gritty horror gameplay that has become something of an indie darling in the hobby space.
This rules-lite RPG found immediate popularity upon its release in 2018 from publisher Tuesday Knight Games. Created by Sean McCoy, Mothership focuses its energy on getting out of the group’s way - its design consolidates relevant information on two-page “control panel” spreads - so they can get busy dying. Because groups will do a lot of dying in Mothership.
Aesthetically, it takes cues from the Alien franchise (at least the first one) and other media that focuses on a hardscrabble crew of underpaid labourers just trying to survive another gig. Players take on the role of teamsters, scientists, androids or marines in a desperate bid to get in, finish the job and get out before they lose their cool and make a deadly mistake
Its signature panic engine makes doing anything more difficult under the mounting stress of, say, a vicious alien predator stalking the shadow or a destabilised mining platform falling apart under their feet. Actions undertaken in a panicked state need to pass a roll to avoid backfiring - certain classes perform well under the adrenaline rush of survival mode, but anyone with a gun is primed for disaster.
The Mothership: Player’s Survival Guide won the 2019 ENnie Award for best game, while adventure module Dead Planet took home silver in the best adventure category. Since then, a hearty crop of hacks, supplements and additions have populated indie platform Itch.io, and it is regularly named as one of the best recent tabletop RPGs among the community.
That status is likely due in part to the fact that a digital version of the Player’s Survival Guide has remained pay-what-you-want on DriveThruRPG and other online storefronts. It’s not yet been said what all will come inside the boxed set - the campaign page simply says “everything you need to play” - but will likely come with the survival guide, character sheets and perhaps some of the other modules and adventures Tuesday Knight Games has previously published.
The Kickstarter campaign for the Mothership Boxed Set launched on November 2nd.