ALTERNATIVES TO MOTHERSHIP'S DEFAULT FTL

I've been playing a bit of LANCER and have really enjoyed embracing the effects of relativistic slower-than-light travel.  And I tend to lean on Larry Niven's Known Space stories for inspiration.  But what started out as a case for STL-only MoSh has turned into a another list post.  So here are some alternatives to the standard jump drive.  Credit to the relevant fiction where it's due.

d10 WAYS PEOPLE TRAVEL THE STARS INSTEAD OF JUMP DRIVES

1. They don't.  But digital uploading is permitted, uploaded minds may travel relativisticly on tiny starmoth-sized lightsail probes propelled by lasers.  It's too hard to transmit the amount of data in a human mind on a comms laser. 
2. STL only (low time-dilation) on a highway of fusion pellets; interstellar space travel is a managed utility like train travel if you also spent years on a train.  Lifespans are long enough and cryopods are good enough that traveling STL is acceptable to anyone who doesn't mind leaving their old world behind. 
3. STL only (very high high time dilation); it's possible to launch a ship into hyperspace to easily travel at an arbitrary speed but Very Bad Things happen to ships that exceed the speed of light.  To the people in the ship's reference frame time passes hundreds of times faster.  But what takes subjective minutes takes years in the rest reference frame.
4. STL only (high time dilation); magical asteroid-sized aliens that can manipulate gravity make a living transporting other species and allow humans to hitch a ride. Thanks Steven Baxter.
5. FTL (realspace); magical asteroid-sized aliens that can manipulate gravity and exotic matter are the only source of warp drive technology.  
6. FTL (hyperspace); as standard MoSh but it takes less time in realspace to get somewhere than it does in hyperspace.  This obviously benefits corporations shipping things and makes the life of a typical spacer even more miserable.
7. FTL (wormholes); established gates allow FTL travel.  Using wormholes as a time machine will destroy the wormholes (a tactic used by saboteurs and warring polities).
8. FTL (hyperspace); hyperspace is really hell and you need to sign an actual contract with the entities that reside there before you jump
9. Pseudo FTL (instant jump); you're traveling between alternate universes; often the only humans in a given universe are hanging around the jump point. Credit to Diaspora (in some games anyway).
10. FTL (instant jump); psychic navigators teleport ships around.  If they rely on drugs to do this, pour one out for Frank Herbert. 

IMPROVED SLEEVE RULES (AND EVEN MORE SLEEVES!)

This post is an effort to present my collection of combat sleeves in a more concise and uniform way.  These rules assume that you're using Quadra's PC hits rules (https://www.traaa.sh/mothership-house-rules).  I also suggest rolling on the critical hit table of your choice whenever a PC loses a hit with the exceptions noted below. 

THE RULES

HEALING:

Robotic sleeves must be repaired and don't heal (as androids at my own table); chimeras gain advantage on their body saves when resting; other sleeves heal as regular players.  

HITS:

Many combat sleeves add an extra hit. If this hit is marked with an asterisk, losing it does not force a roll on the critical hit table. 

RESLEEVING:

On reseleeve make a SANITY and BODY save.  If either is a critical failure you die.  Otherwise you incur substantial medical expenses equal to 10% of the cost of the sleeve.   Each time you resleeve increase your minimum stress by 1.  This stress is eliminated if you return to your original body or merge with a chimera sleeve.

If you are in an unusual body or a substandard chrome sleeve you must roll sanity each week or month.  On a failure, you panic at an inopportune time. 

If you are implanted in a chimera, you may choose to ignore the results of the panic table but must make a SANITY save and take 2 STRESS.  After the first failed save all subsequent saves are at disadvantage.  After two failed saves, you have merged irreparably with the chimera.  Your next death will be permanent

SLEEVES

HORIZON NEUROGEN

The market-leading manufacturer of chimera sleeves.  Well-deserved reputation for rigorous QA testing and stable host temperaments.  The secret to smooth host-brain integration is Gaunt Worm extract.  Brain is stored in the armored chest cavity in all Horizon sleeves.

WEREWOLF (3mcr):

It doesn't look anything like a werewolf but the host is a social pack predator by nature. Elaphantine skin, hunched posture, massive limbs, and a whiplike tail.  Inexperienced operators wear it like powered armor.  Veterans embrace the host's instincts.

Hits: +1*

Strength: 4d10+20 

Speed: 5d10+10 

Combat: 4d10+20

Body: +4

Fear: +4

Armor: +4 (costs 1 cybernetic slot and stacks)

Abilities: IR vision and phased array radar (as IR goggles and bioscanner) -- 1 cybernetic slot; claws and teeth 4d10

REAPER (1mcr):

Designed for tight spaces and hard vacuum.  Unsettling hypermobile limbs and razor-sharp claws.  Can fit through anything the size of its head.  A roughly human silhouette but elongated.  

Hits: +0

Strength: 5d10+10

Speed: 4d10+20 

Combat: 5d10+10

Body: +2

Fear: +6

Abilities: IR vision and phased array radar (as IR goggles and bioscanner) -- 1 cybernetic slot; claws 2d10; fits into all spaces wider than a human head, rated for 30 minutes in hard vacuum (consumes 50% of a human's oxygen), climbs as fast as it walks.

PRU WEREWOLF (60mcr):

Manufactured especially for corporations with deep pockets for operations that call for contact with the paranormal including the sleeve's namesake: Rhombus' legendary PRU kill teams.  You can't afford it.  Any resemblance to an Alpha Gaunt is purely coincidental (also, why do you know what an Alpha Gaunt is anyway?). 

Hits: +1*

Strength: 60

Speed: 60

Combat: 60

Body: +4

Fear: +4

Sanity: +8

Armor: +4 (costs 1 cybernetic slot and stacks)

Abilities: IR vision and phased array radar (as IR goggles and bioscanner) -- 1 cybernetic slot; claws 5d10; redwire implant (no stress from violent actions carried out by you or allies); limited telekinesis (claw attacks at range), and a really nasty scream.

CONSOLIDATED ROBOTICS

Rugged, efficient, and affordable chrome.  Spare parts are available anywhere.  Financing is accessible to the masses and most purchases include a free gift and fully-insured body storage.

HESSIAN (500kcr):

Named for the folkloric figure; a headless chrome sleeve. Lightweight, compressible, and durable.

Hits: +0

Strength: 35 (fixed)

Speed: 30 (fixed)

Body: 40 (fixed)

Armor: 45 (fixed, stacks with body armor) 

Abilities: Integrated IR, Integrated Bodycam, Internal oxygen for brain (lasts 48 hours per tank)

TITAN (10mcr):

A hulking sleeve powered by a miniature nuclear reactor.  

Hits: +1*

Strength: 60 (fixed, advantage on checks)

Speed: 25 (fixed)

Combat: +10

Body:  50

Armor: 60 (fixed, doesn't stack) 

Abilities: Integrated IR, Integrated Bodycam, Internal oxygen for brain (lasts 48 hours per tank), Two integrated weapons of your choice

DAEYI

 A first-rate manufacturer of specialist chrome.  Proprietary DNI adapters allow unusual body plans without undue neural overhead. Branching fractal manipulators and multilateral symmetry is common.  Daeyi sleeves excel in microgravity environments.  

APEX (3mcr):

4-axis symmetry and fractal manipulators.  Despite the unwieldy appearance, moves surprisingly quickly on foot).  Even faster in microgravity.  

Hits: +1

Strength: 50 (fixed)

Speed:  4d10+25

Combat: +15

Body:  45

Armor: 55 (fixed, doesn't stack) 

Abilities: Integrated IR, Integrated Bodycam, Integrated Mag Boots, Integrated Thruster Pack, Internal oxygen for brain (lasts 48 hours per tank), 2 integrated toolkits of your choice, climbs as fast as it walks, fractal disassembly arms (3d10).   

AN ALTERNATE SKILL SYSTEM: SKILLS AS PATCHES

 How best to handle skills in Mothership and in other OSR systems is a recurring discussion.  Folks have addressed this in the context of level-less play, debt for skills, tweaks to the details of the skill table, etc. Mostly, those approaches have been satisfactory when I've used them at my table.  I've noticed a few issues, however. 

Some skills are keyed into concrete mechanical benefits and in campaign play are borderline mandatory. Others are essential to certain character backgrounds but don't necessarily come up that often (zero-g is the worst offender), knowledge type skills can slow down investigations and some, like mathematics or hyperspace may only come up once or twice in a campaign, and finally the scientist skills don't always fit together logically and, without house rules, don't adequately reflect a skilled professional. The most obvious example is that in default MoSh a character playing a doctor will never get the surgery skill at the start of the game.  Many of these issues can be (and no doubt will be) addressed in the boxed set without making any radical changes to the skill system.

The approach I propose is a bit more radical and a lot more minimalistic.  First, it relies on the fairly orthodox OSR assumption that most in-game problem solving shouldn't depend on what you have on your character sheet.  MoSh actually does a pretty good job at this insofar as the skill list mostly capture things outside of the realm of player common sense but I'm going even further.  Players coming from DnD or other games with very concrete skill lists will probably have a harder time.

The core assumption is simple: your character has knowledge and skills consistent with their class and background.  When your character's background would justifiably give them a substantial advantage, they make an appropriate ability check with advantage.  Sometimes having applicable background is a prerequisite to rolling in the first place: in that case, they don't roll with advantage.

In practice, there's a little more to it than that:

• The benefit of rolling with advantage is larger than a regular skill bonus (about +20%); accordingly, skills should be narrower.  Someone with a doctorate degree in xenobiology will be screwed when they're up against plants or viruses. 
• When your character's background would give them relevant knowledge about something, just tell them what they know without rolling.  I do this even when using the regular MoSh skill system and it makes the scientists feel a lot better about themselves.

The really fiddly bits:

• Marines start with proficiency in automatic weapons.  Characters who roll a relevant background also have proficiency in automatic weapons.  Everyone else gains proficiency by surviving an adventure in which they used an automatic weapon and taking an appropriate amount of time to train.  If you're playing a campaign where you don't expect characters to take firearms skills you can make things a little more difficult by requiring more survived missions or requiring a character to pass a fear save in addition to spending their downtime training.  
• Nobody gets the skill bonuses to attack.  Tough shit.  At my own table, there are better weapons, cybernetics, and Meat solutions to shooting better; these provide between +5% and +20%.  If you don't provide these options, you might find that certain high INSTINCT enemies are tougher. I don't view that as a bad thing.  

• Nobody gets miscellaneous skill perks from stuff like Tactics and Command (I find these really obnoxious and don't miss them at all).   

But wait! You haven't told me how you get skills!

Every character first rolls on a table for their class (or selects a specialty).   Scientist specialties come with more narrative permissions and are 'better.'  Marine specialties come with fewer narrative permissions and are 'worse.'  Teamsters pick two specialties.  Your specialty is usually a trade, MOS, or something that requires a graduate education.  For example, Life Support Tech, Shipbreaker, Veterinarian, Exobotanist, Demolitions Specialist.  

Additionally, each character rolls on a common table to determine their life experiences prior to (or alongside their career). Everyone but teamsters roll on this table twice.  Teamsters roll three times.  These backgrounds should be fairly specific -- "Criminal" is too general but "Burglar" or "Penal Colonist" hits the spot.  The analogy to patches should be immediately obvious: once again you're doing a lot of characterization with a d100 table.  If a player can justify how a patch or trinket implies a skill (guitar playing, gambling, getting drugs, or whatever) they can roll to do that with advantage.  This gets even more mileage out of patches and trinkets!  

When a character spends an extended period training, expending money and time to train, consider giving them an additional background from any class table (within reason).  One additional background one for everyone but teamsters.  Teamsters get two.

A CAMPAIGN, LOADOUTS AND NPCS: SURPLUS

 

The Last War is over.  The alliance of Rim megacorps you once served was soundly defeated by the Exile States. One more little nail in the coffin of corporate tyranny; a small step in the right direction.  That's cold comfort to you. You were rebuilt for war and cut loose as your employers disintegrated.  The corps promised you your body back when you enlisted but once the orbital strikes and rolling blackouts started, you know that the freezers stopped.  You don't have a plan.  But you've got a combat sleeve, a well-used weapon, and nothing to lose.

WHO WERE YOU BEFORE THE LAST WAR? [1d10 Backgrounds]

1. Corporate security; a mall cop with a gun
2. A colonial kindergarten teacher; from a company town
3. A teenage delinquent; desperate to get off-word 
4. An indentured white collar employee; enlisted to escape your contract
5. A fast food worker; looking to make something of yourself
6. The rebellious child of an executive; reality caught up quick
7.  A rural colonist; war sounded better than desperate rural poverty
8. An organized criminal; the corps are the biggest gangs there are, after all 
9. A career soldier; you thought a combat sleeve was a logical career move
10. You had a technical background and the corps needed a specialist; here you are 

WHAT DO YOU HAVE LEFT [1d10 Loadouts]

1. Horizon Werewolf Sleeve, Combat Space Suit (plate carrier empty, several holes), Breaching Charges 3x, Compressed Gas Knife, decent cookware and a collection of real spices, a wedding band that doesn't fit on your clawed fingers
2. Horizon Werewolf Sleeve, Pain Pills 6x,  Laser Cutter Power Cell 2x, Electronics Kit, a poorly maintained cybernetic arm, a stolen tradesman's van, tapecomp and several idol pop tapes a photo of your kids
3. Horizon Werewolf Sleeve, Surgical Kit, Battledress, Revolver (no bullets), an emergency medicine skillslick (and slicksocket), Nerve Gas Grenade 1x (Werewolves are immune), carjacking tools, Knives 6x
4. Horizon Werewolf Sleeve, Crowbar, Federova-Turner 'Onika' Deck, Flares 6x, a copy of Gideon's Bible, an Occupational Health and Safety Certificate  
5. Horizon Werewolf Sleeve, Pulse Rifle 2x, MREs (for combat sleeves) 28x, a sleeve tattoo
6. Daeyi Apex Sleeve, Concussion Grenade Launcher, Concussion Grenades 6x, monofilament wire, a photo of your old self (glass smashed), responsibility for a human child
7. Daeyi Apex Sleeve, Integrated Smart Rifle, robot repair kit, a wedding band that doesn't fit on one of your many fractal manipulators, vacation vouchers (never used)
8. Consolidated Robotics Titan Sleeve, Integrated Flamethrower, your old body's right hand in an acrylic block, a violin and case (too small for you to play easily)
9. Horizon Reaper Sleeve, Goggles, Stimpack 6x, formal attire (silk)
10. Infiltrator Combat Android, DVK 'Micro-80X' Wristcomp, one disguise kit (new face and body), Scalpel 2x

KILL SIX BILLION MOTHERSHIPS: PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON HOW TO HANDLE SPACE KUNG FU

MOSH's combat is designed to be a highly lethal fail state.  Squaring that with a game where players also have magical space kung fu (or combat sleeves) that set them apart from a random NPC with a gun presents some challenges.  With sleeves, I've addressed this issue by giving players better tools in the fail state in exchange for risking permanent death and a panic death spiral that makes combat harder to avoid.

Space kung fu presents a slightly trickier problem but here's a preliminary set of rules (note that I'm assuming the rules on hits and weapon damage released on the MOSH discord are in play -- players have hits and weapon damage is more constrained:

SOME SIMPLE RULES FOR SPACE KUNG FU:

1. Remove all stat bonuses for combat sleeves and the like and let players describe their cybernetic implants however they want.  All the players are similarly powerful.  In the grand scheme of things they're still nobodies: the background ninjas, axe gang mooks, etc., but relative to a random NPC on the street they're tremendously dangerous.  Some NPCs probably warrant reduced hits and stats.
2. Give everyone a single extra hit with HP generated as normal (Marines will have 4, everyone else will have 3).  Unlike a player's other hits, losing this one has no consequences and doesn't entail a roll on the critical hit table.
3. Permit players to defend against ranged attacks with an opposed combat roll and counterattack against any opponent they're aware of and can see.  You could view this as a Jedi deflecting blaster bolts but you could also view it as Jackie Chan making creative use of his environment or a combat sleeve's superior reflexes allowing it to shoot someone popping out from behind cover before they get a shot off.  
4. Abstract weapons and damage a little more; gear really shouldn't matter as much except for certain standout specialist weapons like the smart rifle and combat shotgun or a sword with a legendary pedigree.  
5. Permit combat maneuvers (2 successful combat rolls) 
6. All players have a "style" (it needn't be a formal martial art but you should probably name it like one because space kung fu and give a brief description).  When performing combat maneuvers consistent with their style, players roll 1 of their 2 combat maneuver rolls at advantage.  A player may learn other styles as they would an expert skill  
7. Adjust narrative permissions to reflect more capable characters; they can jump higher, run faster, do ridiculous parkour, etc.  

SCRATCHING THAT K6BD ITCH WITH WORLDBUILDING THROUGH INVENTORY

 

 Combining Kill Six Billion Demons with MOSH has been a persistent itch (and Lancer really isn't my speed).  At a certain point you just have to get writing and worldbuilding through inventories is a great way to start.  Broadly, the goal is a setting with characters who are powerful compared to a random person on the street but dwarfed by real threats.  On some level that's consistent with my approach in my implied meatpunk setting: combat sleeves, bonesuits, and cybermagic set player characters above a random NPC but don't really change the fundamentals of combat against real threats.  There's no particular reason you can't add magic swords and space kung fu to that mix (and human/meat horrors who also know space kung fu is certainly a concept with legs).  But my instinct is that this is a separate setting even if those other elements also stay.   

Probably, space kung fu requires some rules supplements but I aspire to keep it about as light as sleeves and lighter than the GLOG magic hack.  But that's a problem for another post.

So without further ado and with credit to Phlox and deus ex parabola for the sword names:

WHAT DO THEY HAVE IN THEIR POCKETSES?

Naringit, Fourth Lion of the Golden Dome:

1.  God From Ellipses, an elegant tulwar with an oilslick sheen and a cedar scabbard covered in brass charms; its wounds are ideograms that foretell calamities.

2.  Nineteen Broken Seals Treatise on archival-grade pulp-paper; margins carefully annotated in black pen

3.  Quilted impact suit with a cermet breastplate; filled with titan rocsnake down and thousands of fingernail-sized silicon wafers etched with paracausal ideograms; offers excellent protection against both DEWs and paracausal dangers.  

4.  Nice robes (still in the drycleaning bag)

5.  Travel meditation pillow; buckwheat filling

6.  The address to their hotel written on the back of a scrap of paper

7.  All-day subway card decorated with tourist-friendly art

8.  Black nylon duffel bag

9.  Monthly public net terminal subscription 

10.  Half-eaten faux egg salad sandwich in a takeout box

11.  Pine resin (for chewing)

12.  Two pairs of sandals

13.  Gold necklace depicting the Black Abbess

Tirangle, escaped clone nun:

1.  Secondhand OWRE 4300 tapecomp, controller peripheral, and three tapes of bootleg arcade games

2.  Flatpack submachinegun still in its vacuum sealed bag along with three single-use magazines

3.  Good Noodle! gift card (129 kWh on the card)

4.  Secondhand field jacket (standard issue among the forces of the Iron Garden); all insignia removed and small hole in the elbow (badly mended); doesn't match the rest of her outfit

5.  Patch (false firefern frond)

6.  Spacer's utility knife; prying tool is well-used, blade isn't

7.  Zero-gee sleeping bag; rolled tightly

8.  Silver nose piercing (she hasn't got around to getting her nose pierced yet)

9.  One-way OTV ticket (downwell)  

10.  Shopping bag full of fresh vegetables and cleaning supplies; it's her turn in the hostel kitchen

11.  Hairpins (package of 12)

12.  Velcro slippers 

13.  Small foil sachet of hand cream (a free sample)

Ras the Tailor, wandering blade:

1.  None Save Saviors, well-used boarding axe decorated by colorful ribbons; the blackbox cell in the haft drives a highly illegal inertial spike; presently slung over his shoulder
2.  Short barreled Iskra 994 automatic pistol in a travel case.

3.  Batik shirt; stylized geometric flower pattern

4.  Personal inertial compensator concealed in a cloth pouch worn at the waist

5.  13,500 kWh in large-denomination physical tokens

6.  A pocket full of energy bars and instant coffee packets and a plastic cup

7.  Smart sunglasses connected to a portable computer with a coil cord

8.  The receipt from his last night out; folded to fit into his wallet

9.  A nice pair of real leather boots (needs a new pair of laces)

10.  Cannabis infused gum

11.  Military surplus backpack

12.  Illustrated Ten Thousand Arrayed Iron Horrors Style manual 

13.  Well-used sewing kit and a handheld sewing machine

50 PLANET NAMES

 

d50 PLANET NAMES

1. And Then Some
2. Aramida
3. Ashwind
4. Belphegor
5. Broken Oars
6. Creche
7. Contact!
8. Dale
9. Dragonsteeth
10. Dreaming of July
11. Elkwood
12. Failsafe
13. Fins In The Surf
14. Foxhole
15. Gar
16. Gale
17. Giant's Neck
18. Hayek II 
19. Hands Down
20. Iris
21. Juliette 
22. Justice
23. Kallash
24. Kepi 
25. Kilo
26. Libera
27. LVXI
28. Make Haste
29. Mantou 
30. New Marie Byrd Land
31. New Omsk
32. New Wollongong 
33. New Zeeland 
34. Orthanc
35. Oscar
36. Painted Rock
37. Qullasuyu
38. Red Sands
39. Rest At Last
40. Roscoe
41. Saltsea
42. Simla
43. Sunset
44. Tailsitter 
45. Uralia
46. Ushanka
47. Vindication
48. Westward Track
49. Zarephath 
50. Zeal