Mothership

DISTRESS SIGNAL RECEIVED. ORIGIN: UNKNOWN. CREW STATUS: UNKNOWN. RECOMMENDED ACTION: DO NOT RESPOND.
You responded anyway. Mothership is a sci-fi horror tabletop RPG about blue-collar crew members trying to survive in a universe that is actively trying to kill them. Not heroes. Not soldiers. People doing their best in terrible situations, with the wrong tools, not enough information, and a slowly growing sense that something on this ship is very, very wrong. Think less Star Trek. Think Alien. Think Event Horizon. Think the moment a door opens and you immediately wish it hadn’t.
No experience needed. Show up, get a character sheet, try to make it back alive.
Perfect for: Horror fans who want real stakes at the table, sci-fi players tired of feeling invincible, and anyone who has ever watched Alien and thought “I would absolutely not survive that.”

🎒 What to bring

• Yourself
• A rough idea of who you want to be: android, scientist, marine, teamster. All of them die in interesting ways
• Willingness to describe what your character does and how they do it, not just what they roll

🎁 What we provide

• Pre-generated characters ready to play, or we walk through the flowchart character sheet together at the table
• All dice, including the Panic Die
• The book
• 3 – 4 hours somewhere dark, far from help, with something in the walls

⚙️ How it plays

• Roll percentile dice and try to roll equal to or under your relevant Stat. Roll under: you succeed. Roll over: you fail and gain 1 Stress. That’s the core of the whole system.
• Stress and Panic. Stress accumulates every time you fail a check. When it builds high enough, small things start triggering Panic Checks. Roll the Panic Die and consult the table. Results range from laser focus to full breakdown, and some leave permanent Conditions your character carries for the rest of the session.
• Panic is contagious. One crew member losing it can cascade through the whole table. Managing group morale is as important as managing ammunition.
• Four classes: Teamster, Marine, Scientist, Android. Each has a different stat spread and a different relationship with fear. The android does not panic. This is either reassuring or deeply unsettling depending on circumstances.
• Violence is a trap. Characters are fragile by design and can take only a few Wounds before dying. Combat is fast, brutal, and something to avoid until you have no other option. If you find yourself in a firefight, something has already gone wrong.
• No levels. Characters advance through Shore Leave between missions: spending credits, treating Conditions, and converting accumulated trauma into improved Saves. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you slightly harder to kill next time.
• The Warden runs the game. They do not roll dice for enemies. All rolls come from the players. Every failure is yours.
• Skills are tiered: Trained, Expert, Master. Each tier adds a meaningful bonus. A Master-level skill can be the difference between a tense situation and a body bag.

🏆 What you take home

• Your character sheet, Conditions and all, if they survived
• A solid understanding of percentile roll-under systems and why Stress is the most important number on your sheet
• An opinion on whether androids are trustworthy (they are not)
• 10% discount on all Mothership products in store

📚 Resources

• Mothership – Official page via Tuesday Knight Games
• Free Downloads – Official character sheets, reference cards, and the Basic Training Course learn-to-play guide

⚠️ Content warning: Contains graphic violence, body horror, themes of isolation, panic, trauma, and the very real possibility that nobody makes it out. This is a horror game for mature audiences.