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Claw out a living on the edge of space – Mothership Anthology
On a city-sized space station that's one loose bolt away from catastrophe, millions of people struggle just to get by. These are their stories.
TYPE
SYSTEM
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$16.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Wednesday - 11:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 3–3.5 hours
Campaign Length / 10+ Sessions
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
When you live in the outer rim, and even paying for oxygen puts you in debt, there's not much you won't do to survive. Lucky for you, the work is plentiful, so long as you don't mind putting up with monstrous cyborgs, vicious mob bosses, ruthless gladiators and that ghostly voice that's been haunting the airwaves. The deep void of space is anything but empty. For a start, it has plenty of teeth. This campaign will tell an anthology of stories set on the same city-sized space station, with a new focus every few weeks. Players can choose to take their old characters on new adventures (providing they survived the last one), or make brand new characters. This makes this a great game for people joining late or for those who can't commit to a long campaign, as well as people eager to turn up every week to see everything the station has to offer. This is the perfect introduction to Mothership for roleplaying beginners or for veteran dice-rollers. I will explain all of the rules during the first session, and we’ll also take some time at the beginning for you to make your characters using Mothership’s super simple character creation system. It uses some locations and characters from the official Pound of Flesh book, along with several new encounters of my own, so even if you've played Mothership before, you won't know the story. This is a horror game, so the atmosphere will be tense and spooky, with a little bit of body horror thrown in. To ensure that everyone has fun, I use a variety of safety tools. Before the one-shot, I will send you all a form you can use to anonymously let me know about any triggers you want me and other players to exclude from the game.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(15)
4 years on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Teacher
Average response time: 5 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
I'm a British writer, former teacher and stage performer living in Switzerland. The first time I ran a game of Dungeons & Dragons for children, it began with a bar fight and ended with a dragon being punched in the face. I've run RPGs for hundreds of people, but the violent urges of grown adults never compare to the seven-year-old boy playing a dwarf who lived in the woods with his army of bunnies. Playing RPGs can make you more creative, more empathetic and more confident, but sometimes you just need to punch a dragon in the face. I run games for players of all ages and experience levels in every system under the sun, including D&D, Mothership and Avatar: Legends. I am a qualified English teacher and an amateur standup and improv comedian, and I bring that same energy (and patience) to my games. As your GM, I make it my mission to tell a story that truly belongs to you. So if you’re looking for games where you really get to dive into your character’s backstory and their relationships, where discovering your character arc is as important as saving the world, then you’ll love my games. Sometimes, the real prize was the friends we made along the way.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
If you would like to create your own character before the session, please let me know and send me some information on your character. Either way, I will help everyone to finish creating their characters in the first session and provide the character sheets and rulebooks. This will be a great chance to bounce ideas off of the other players and to find out how your characters know each other and what their relationships are. If you are joining partway through the campaign, I will send you instructions on how to create a character, and a summary of recent events. Bringing homebrew or third-party content to the table is usually fine, but please check with me first. I will also need to add the content to Foundry. I will add an extra hour to the first session for no additional cost, so that we have time for everyone to finish their character and to begin the campaign.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
When you sign up, you will get instructions to connect on Discord. I will then add you to the server for the game. When we play, I'll invite you to join my Foundry VTT server in your browser. I recommend joining on a computer because Foundry works best on a monitor. You don't need to make your own account for this.
What Jim the GM brings to the table
I will explain all of the rules as we play, and I have access to lots of official and third party content which I can share. If you want to know more about the game, feel free to message me. I follow the Rule of Cool when playing, and I believe in 'failing forward'. A roll should always move the story in an interesting direction, whether a character succeeds or fails. Rolls and combat move quickly in my Mothership games, but they should always be exciting. I bring sessions to life with dramatic voices for NPCs and bombastic descriptions of action. I like to involve players in setting scenes too, so we create the world together. I have a Discord server where we can record session logs, discuss game admin and even share art. After each session, if you write a summary of what happened as your character, you will get to reduce your stress by one for free.
Homebrew rules
After each session, if you write a summary of what happened as your character, you can reduce their stress by one. This helps everyone to remember what happened, and is a fun way to get into the head of your character.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Jim the GM creates a safe table
There will be a ten-minute break in the middle of the session. Players can request a five-minute break at any time. We will use the X and N card system to provide an easy way for players to halt play, change a scene or move on if part of the game makes them uncomfortable. It’s crucial to me that all players feel comfortable and have fun. Before the one-shot, I will send all players an anonymous form where they can share any topics they wish to exclude or other special considerations they want me to take. Mothership is a horror game which often contains scenes of violence and gore. However, in my descriptions, I will never linger on pain or injury. Players may be unnerved, but they should never be uncomfortable.
Content warnings
Safety tools used