2019-02-25

by quadra zone.

Mothership House Rules

Mothership house rules

(Based on the Alpha Zine Edition, 3rd Printing rules & errata. Note that these house rules are compatible with the current state of playtesting and my playtesting character sheet)

Last updated: 2020-09-03

Having run several Mothership sessions for my pals, I’ve gone and tweaked a few things. Here are my current house rules:

Combat Rolls

(I consider this one essential. If you’re only going to house rule one thing, make it this.) Instead of opposed Combat/Armor rolls, just have the attacker roll Combat. If they succeed, they roll damage and the defender can then roll Armor to save for half. IMO this is clearer, speeds up combat a lot, and increases the rate at which people actually hit stuff.

Crits

If anyone rolls a crit success on an attack, they roll on Sean’s crit table (see page 3 of the Warden Screen). If a player rolls a crit success on a non-combat roll, I give them something nice (e.g. “you find 1d10 extra clips of ammo when searching the body”, “you lose 1d5 Stress”, etc.). If they crit fail on any roll, I do something bad (and contextually appropriate) to them that significantly shifts the situation out of their favor (e.g. “your gun breaks”, “the crowbar flies out of your hand and clatters across the floor”, “you manage to pull the grenade off the Marine’s corpse — without the pin”, etc.)

Stat Checks

“No PC ever makes the same check twice, for it is not the same check and they are not the same PC.”

When someone fails a stat check, the situation changes for the worse, proportionally to what they were attempting. Trying to hack a terminal? Now it’s locked you out. Trying to shoot someone with your SMG? Whoops, you shot the lights out and now it’s dark. Trying to shoot someone with your laser cutter? Whoops, you shot a hole in the hull and now the ship is decompressing! The idea here is to make everything consequential, and keep everything moving. It results in situations that are more cinematic and dramatic, and it means the game state doesn’t just wait for players to succeed.

Gaining Stress

I dole out Stress when PCs encounter / experience something:

Merely distressing: 1 Stress

Actually scary: 1d5 Stress

Truly horrifying: 1d10 Stress

Panic Checks

I keep forgetting when I should do Fear or Sanity checks and when I should do a Panic check, so now I just have everyone Panic Check every time they gain Stress (except when they gain 1 Stress or gain Stress from the Panic Table). This balances out my gentler Stress and Panic Table rules, I think, and is just easier to track.

Healing

Instead of healing by the amount they succeed by on a Body save, Players just heal by the number on the die if they succeed the save. It’s mechanically almost equivalent, and less math.

Androids

I ask Android players which of my Android Types they want to play and use my special rules from there.

Leveling Up

When leveling up, I’ve changed the option from “cure a phobia or addiction” to “cure a condition,” which include phobias and addictions but also stuff from the panic table like Death Drive.

Bioscanner

The Bioscanner only works on the level you’re currently on, to save myself the headache of tracking baddies across multiple floors. It shows somewhat indistinct blobs and isn’t super precise.

Aiming

Aiming is now more useful than it is in the PSG (12.2): a PC may take a single action to Aim. This grants advantage on their next ranged combat roll, provided their target stays within their line of sight, the PC takes no other actions, and nothing hits the PC before they are able to make that combat roll. This means the PC can aim and shoot with advantage in a single turn, or aim at the end of one turn and shoot with advantage at the start of their next turn.

Gambits

Borrowing from James Young’s house rules, PCs may take both of their actions in a turn to attempt a Gambit: a cool, risky, and dangerous move not covered by other actions (e.g. attempting to disarm a foe, trying to leap onto a large creature, shove a live grenade in its mouth and leap away, etc.). The Warden works with the player to determine how the player’s idea will work, and what the consequences will be if it doesn’t.

Then the player makes two Combat rolls. If both succeed, they pull it off! If they both fail, something very bad happens to them. If one succeeds and one fails, they either get a partial success, or they succeed, but at a cost. The Warden may dictate this or let the player choose.

Hits

Just like monsters, the PCs now have Hits in addition to HP. All classes get 2 Hits, Marines get 3. Each Hit has HP equal to the character’s Strength stat. When you take damage, reduce HP accordingly until you reach 0. Once you have 0 HP, you lose a Hit, your HP resets, and you roll on the Critical Hit Table. An attack that does more damage than your current HP will only reduce your current HP, and will not “overflow” to the HP of your next Hit. Attacks dealing MDMG deal damage directly to Hits. A Hit can only be healed with the use of a medbay.

Encumbrance

Player characters can carry a number of items equal to their Strength/10, plus 1 per hand, plus whatever they’re wearing (so a vaccsuit with magboots and a bodycam won’t count towards this). Items stack 3/slot.

Calm

Instead of the standard Stress system, I use my d100 Calm system, which I find more suited to campaign play. If you don’t want to replace the whole Panic system but you want to make it more campaign-friendly, check out my Panic Table Rolls house rule below!

Deprecated House Rules

Panic Table Rolls (replaced with Calm)

Players roll Stress + 1d10 instead of 2d10 for campaign games, so beloved characters won’t get heart attacked so much. 2d10 still seems good for one-shots tho.

I’ve also softened the two worst Panic Effects a bit:

29. Psychological Collapse no longer causes you to permanently lose control of your character, but instead lasts until the character sleeps at least 6 hours and succeeds on a Sanity Save.

no longer causes you to permanently lose control of your character, but instead lasts until the character sleeps at least 6 hours and succeeds on a Sanity Save. 30. Heart Attack now works like a Fatal Wound on the Combat Critical Hits table (see p3 of the Warden Screen): instead of dying immediately, die in 10m unless you get medical attention (or First Aid with disadvantage).

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