Gradient Descent - I Dreamt I was a Butterfly
There is an abandoned android facility at the edge rimspace known as "The Deep." The bravest crews bring back wondrous artifacts, and tales of horror.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Wednesday - 11:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 2–3 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Beyond a military blockade of ships, at the far reaches of the galaxy, floats the Cloudbank Synthetics Production Facility AKA "The Deep," an abandoned Android factory which has been completely taken over by a rogue Ai system. Rumors of dangerous creatures, defunct half-made robots, and other unspeakable horrors are told about that defiled place - but tales of priceless artifacts scattered amongst detritus and traps still draw in new crops of "divers" each cycle who mean to seek fame and fortune. The Omni-Corporation, one of the largest organizations in a post-capitalist cyberpunk landscape, also seems to have a vested interest in the place. The Company wants you and a ship of other like-minded lunatics to go get something for them. The corp is willing to pay upfront costs and supply you with a small space vessel - and should you be successful, they also promise a handsome reward of 10 Million Creds. Now that's a lot of coffees... Big reward often means big risk. Your mission is straight forward, at least. 1) Breach the blockade and meet your contact aboard the temporary staging outpost - The Bell. 2) From there, enter "The Deep" and retrieve a data-disc that the Omni-Corp has labeled "The Artifact." 3) Return with your life and spend the rest of your days in paradise. Simple right? Sure, as long as you don't think about the killer robots, half-crazy fellow divers, or the thousand miles of circuits which make up "Monarch" - the insane super computing matrix at the heart of the facility. The greatest danger, however, comes from within. As you go deeper and deeper, feel your humanity slip from you as you begin to question what around you is really real and what is just a trick of the light. What do you remember? Why is it becoming so hard to recall who you were before you entered this cursed place? Have things always felt so familiar, and uncanny all at once? And why does that phrase keep coming back to you: "i dreamt i was a butterfly..."
Game style
Dungeon Crawl
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Theater of the Mind
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Combat Lite
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(7)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Rule of Cool, Inclusive, Creativity
About me
Hello! My name is Alex and I am a writer and Game Master of 7+ Years. I first got into Dungeons and Dragons after being a part of a college production of “She Kills Monsters” (shoutout Qui Nguyen) and joining up with a group of adventurers and a DM in the production who sparked my love for collaborative storytelling in a medium I hadn’t ever experienced. Cue the whole COVID-19 business, I absorbed tons of DnD podcasts and shows while taking every chance I could to rope friends into rolling dice and improvising fun and interesting characters. Over the course of my time as a certified TTRPG head, I have played several systems from Call of Cthulhu to Vampire: The Masquerade to Mothership, my current obsession. I have run a collected total of over 25 different games spanning from one-shots to full blown campaigns and have run sessions for parties of 3 to 8 people depending on the project. My games focus around a deep sense of world-building mixed in with character spotlights where I try my darnedest to make the game and story centralized on the kooky characters my players bring with a deep emphasis on player choices mattering and a desperately important consequences with risks and rewards reflective of the team’s actions on an individual level and as a whole. While maintaining a respect for mechanical structure in games, I often will be adaptive to what the tone of the group and what the game at large requires; the rule of cool is my deity and I pray to it often and frequently.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Please use the Mothership Companion App on the Apple or Android Store. It is super intuitive and you can fine tune the details or even just use the "Fast Build" Option. NOTE: This campaign has a notoriously high lethality, so it is recommended that you have one or two backup characters that you can keep aboard The Bell in case your character meets their untimely end.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
If you get a chance to, please read through the basic player rules and system which are all available on Tuesday Knight Games' resource page, found here: https://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/pages/mothership-resources-downloads The Warden Education System is especially good for new players and I highly recommend going through it at least once. We will be playing through a private Discord channel that I will send a link for once you sign on for your first session. You are welcome to bring physical dice (d10s are a must), though you will also be able to roll using the online system on the Mothership Companion App. Please make sure you have one device pre-loaded with the Companion app that has access to your characters that is fully charged before the session starts. Otherwise, just watch your favorite sci-fi horror flick, play Dead Space or any similar videogame, and make sure you show up with your best gritty space pirate voice you can muster! (All of this is optional, of course) See ya in the stars, space cowboys/girls/non-binary cowpokes!
What Alexander brings to the table
I will provide story and narration for the game as well as provide maps and handouts to create a rich and immersive setting. I will use multiple different accent/voices for my NPCs as well as additional homebrew content that will saturate originality into your Gradient Descent experience. As a Warden, I focus on Role Play and Combat in around a ~60:40 split, subject to change based on group preferences. I am especially fond of out-of-box solutions and will often run Rule of Cool for lower stakes and will stick to Rules as Written during scenes with higher tension and consequences.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Alexander creates a safe table
Beyond all else, I care about player safety at my tables and I make a careful and concentrated effort to make everyone aware of the rules of my table that facilitate fun without overstepping boundaries. Sanctuary isn’t just a dope spell for clerics, it is a tenant of the community I wish to foster and the fantasy that I choose to engage with. I will send a link with an extensive list of detailed trigger warnings in this campaign, and before every session I will go over any triggers that are expected to come up during play. Optionally, I can send a consent sheet with detailed Lines and Veils upon request. I always keep my private messages in my attention while running games, and feel free to privately message me if something is making you uncomfortable or if anything feels off or unexpected in a negative way over the course of the session. In choosing me as a Game Master, you are also committing yourself to a culture of care and respect and are expected to be empathetic towards your fellow players and to my table rules, listed below: 1. Be respectful. 2. No bigotry or homophobia. 3. Don’t argue to excess over rulings – it is after all, just a game. 4. Please don’t call a d6 “The D-SEX” – I had one guy do it and it was funny once, but then they kept doing it… so moderation, I guess. 5. Speak up if something is bothering you. 6. Don’t show up over-intoxicated or inebriated in some other fashion – it is not my job to keep you from eating your dice. 7. Don’t be afraid to try something wacky. 8. Try not to Murder Hobo. 9. Have fun! I will go over each of these rules in turn during a Session 0. If you join the campaign after that meeting, I will request a private chat beforehand to ensure that you are up to date on all the safety measures I keep in place for my games and to answer any questions that you may have. Peace and love yall - in moments of doubt, please remember the golden rule. My general guideline is if you have to ask if something is bigotry, it probably is.
Content warnings
Safety tools used