Its been a while since I’ve written a blog post and since I’m sat here staring at a pile of modules that I’ve played recently I thought I’d do a single post and try and cover of some of my thoughts on a few at once, as well as an update on my review of Mothership.
I’ve run Decagone twice and I’d say that the first time I ran it was one of the most amusing RPG sessions myself and the players have ever had. While the second time was enjoyable, it just didn’t quite seem to click with the players. I think this probably says more about how different groups of people lead to different play styles than anything about the module design in general.
Without any spoilers Decagone is almost an ideal introductory Mothership module, especially if you’re bringing in players who are familiar with other systems where their characters are less likely to die horribly within the first 5 minutes. It does a great job of encouraging exploration and experimentation while maintaining a pressure cooker that inevitably builds to an exciting climax.
Verdict: I’d run this again and again.
I put Lord and Spotty Wizard through ABH on a whim as we’d managed to get together and wanted to play a one shot, I’d already got VTT materials prepped from when I ran this with my work group so it made sense to reuse those. I knew that we’d only have a single 2.5 hour session to fit the game in as well, which added a little bit of challenge to the pacing.
Fortunately ABH is very well designed scenario, with plenty of ways for the warden to drive the pace of the scenario without railroading the players. Despite our relatively short session the players managed to visit most of the locations in the scenario and have a daring rooftop escape with a cool “did we actually escape?” moment in the closing scene.
When I originally ran this scenario I had some complaints about Mothership’s combat system and the emphasis it placed on GM fiat. I’d say that’s still a valid criticism of this scenario as an introduction to Mothership, however now I’ve got more experience with the system I’m a lot happier treating the combat more like Blades in the Dark with hit points which seems to make things run a lot more smoothly.
Verdict: Classic Sci Fi Fun.
I chose to drop Desert Moon of Karth into my Mothership campaign with my work colleagues as a bit of a pallet cleanser after Gradient Descent. DMoK offers a nice sandbox full of factions and intrigue that I knew my players would disregard and consequently fall foul of in hilarious ways.
I gave them a seemingly easy objective of hunting down “Silverarm” a rim space liberation front terrorist leader. Even before they got to the planet they were making enemies, and then on the surface they realised that running around in advanced battle dress was making them stick out like a sore thumb. While they eventually managed to achieve their objective, they encountered plenty of roadblocks and obstacles that made the mission much more interesting.
Verdict: A great toolbox cannibalise and drop into an ongoing campaign, just be sure to retool the lore to fit your setting specifics.
In case it hasn’t already come through above a lot of my reservations about Mothership have been worn away by spending more time with the system. Some of this is just down to internalising mechanics but I think a reasonable amount can also be explained by adjusting expectations.
I generally prefer rules light systems with very fast resolution and at first Mothership’s combat system, stress and damage models all seemed to slow things right down. However, once you accept that this little bit of slow down isn’t going to derail the game the mechanics really begin to shine.
I still think that the default panic table could do with a rework, but I’m actually very excited to run future campaigns using Mothership.
mothership rpgs review
Its been a while since I’ve written a blog post and since I’m sat here staring at a pile of modules that I’ve played recently I thought I’d do a single post and try and cover of some of my thoughts on a few at once, as well as an update on my review of Mothership.
halo wargaming review
Halo Flashpoint is a miniature skirmish game set in the Halo universe designed by Mantic Games. I’ve had my eye on it for a while now but due to missing the initial hype wasn’t able to find a copy of the Spartan edition in stock anywhere. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and get the smaller Recon edition of the game, only to then find a copy of the Spartan Edition available at Dark Star Games.
40k wargaming journal
Recently I’ve started playing 40k again, partly because pushing minis around is fun but also because it’s a good excuse to get a regular in person social event in the calendar.
fitness
This year has been a bit of a mixed bag for physical fitness improvement. Life is always a balance between different goals and I’ve certainly tipped the scales towards family and career over the past 12 months.
mothership rpgs review
In the interest of playing more games I decided to offer to run a session of the Mothership RPG for a few colleagues… and it’s turned out to be a success so far. Four sessions in we’ve run the Haunting of Ypsilon 14 and nearly all of Another Bug Hunt (ABH).