• 03 Nov, 2025 *

Ive been reading, writing and running Mothership (MoSh) since 1e dropped on my lap like a gift from the heavens. My meathead baby bro backed the bundle and neglected to negate the order. Of course, I swooped in and read the books and fell in love with the material. The core box kicks ass. No questions asked. I’ll take you thru my history with the Mothership and RPGs thus far, as well as comment on my current thoughts how to read a module, how to write an adventure or make rulings and how to run some shit.

Like many others, I started reading Mothership modules with Another Bug Hunt. It overwhelmed me. That was the first module I had ever read, aside from The Shadow of Tower Silveraxe (which is pretty boring to read and play! but not altogether terrible). I thought it looked cool but I had no idea how to get it off the ground. So, I decided the best thing to do with a new game is to write my own shit for it and see how it all slaps together.

It was a barroom brawl scenario. A combat against a Normal Man. I was running the game as well as an NPC named Ghibli, an irksome bully designed to vex my brother’s character, named Ben Morris.

As this was a fight against an equal opponent it was close but Ghibli was knocked out or otherwise screwed. Then, somehow, he returned with cybernetic enhancements. I believe this may have been a more involved scenario? There was a bouncer involved (the worst bouncer ever), who had a taser and a gun behind the bar.

Ben defeated Ghibli a second time by seizing a gun from behind the bar, but not before swinging on a chandelier.

Then something more involved: zombies, on a boat outside of the boundaries of the resort on some planet called Tropicana or something. Ghibli was there, having become friends with Ben after being twice defeated.

There was another one as well where Ben fought something like a big cat in a cold, isolated research facility. I think this actually came first but I would probaly rank it better than the zombie joint

All of these were written on like a couple pieces of scrap paper. I would kind of abandon the homebrew scenario writer for a bit to see what the game could do according to others.

And here, I kinda went the wrong way. I tried to run many pamphlet modules with as minimal legwork as necessary. The idea was I could then run them again with the gaps identitied and eventually I would kind of be able to spot the parts that need more love without running a module, eventually.

Actually, I was more or less correct and that is exactly how it went down. So it was worth it but wow, did I run some inferior, underbaked sessions. You can never be perfectly prepared but I have grown much better at spotting legwork ahead of time.

Another thing I realized is I dont really like pamphlet modules that much! Or I am very selective when running them. I think it’s a good format for supplementary material but not as much for entire adventures. The 12 or so page zine is a much more forgiving format! The pitch I think for trifolds, to a lot of people, is that you can pick it up and get it running in an hour or whatever. And it’s true but they require a bit of massaging and hashing out, most of the time, in order to really make them sing.

Anyway, I ran Ypsilon, Alone in the Deep, The Ship that Swallowed a Spider, Year of the Rat, The Goblin on Icarus Station joint and a bunch more. I also got modules that I didnt enjoy reading at all so I didnt want to run them which is something that has gradually happened less often as I’ve become more adept at quality control. I feel different ways about different pieces, and I dont want to yuck anyone’s yum. I might run some of them again but I’m not generally that enthusiastic about any of these.

The really crazy shit here is that Ben Morris survived all of these adventures. Granted I’m still trying to get as mean as I can be with running enemies actively trying to kill the PCs in ways that match and challenge the players appropriately. Like, its a skill issue, Im just not a supreme tactician while I am managing the big group of bugs and keeping track of the PCs and refereeing. I think there are practices I could improve on to accomodations for that skill gap somewhat, like using play aids more often with a map as opposed to leaning into ToTM completely.

The next thing we ran is Another Bug Hunt. This is where I started understanding the way to use a module. It’s kind of a trial by fire to the new GM, I think, which is great as an educational tool. It also follows the TOMBS cycle very closely. This is good for teaching Mothership specifically, and how you can generate continuous play in a thriller/horror type game.

The funniest moment in the Bug Hunt series was the end – we finish off the module and Maas turns into a carcinid and my players just say “Nah, we kill him.” They were pretty damned well-equipped and theyd killed so many carcinids already. You know what? They earned it. Then they did a single move in the ship and wooshhh they made it away.

Ben Morris does it again.

Im going to keep updating this post until its current. But for now, I’ll stop here. Tata~