Mothership - d10 Blue Collar Mission Generator
Update: a slightly revised version of this generator is now available on my itch.io page! Check it out!
A recent bluesky exchange I had was about the lack of ‘mundane’ modules for Mothership. Especially in longterm play, alien horror after alien horror diminishes the survival chances of individual player characters.
Sure, the modules can be months or years apart and there’s rules for downtime activities in the meantime - learning new skills takes years, after all.
But I think a Space Trucker themed campaign can only take so much alien confrontations before the tone of the campaign shifts.
And what if you wanted to run a game where the horrors were only a selective occurrence?
If you don’t need every game session to be the worst day in the PC’s lives, here’s a bunch of d10 tables to generate some - not necessary harmless - blue collar missions in space:
Client
- Ye olde Mom&Pop Shop
- Corpo Gal
- Bartender
- Retired Space Trucker
- Talking Cat
- Fixer
- Drinking Buddy
- Relative
- Union Contact
- Religious Group Member
Task
- Exterminate infestation (roll on Infestation table)
- Android maintenance
- Clean that thing (roll on Stationary Things table)
- Repair that thing (roll on Stationary Things table)
- Scrap that thing (roll on Stationary Things table)
- Recover that thing (roll on Movable Things table)
- Deliver that thing (roll on Movable Things table; roll twice on Target Location table to determine start and destination locations)
- Smuggle that thing (roll on Movable Things table; roll twice on Target Location table to determine start and destination locations)
- Organize a Strike
- Doggy Daycare
Infestation
- Evolved Food Leftovers
- Mold
- Blue Algae
- Grasshoppers
- Rats
- Cockroaches
- Spiders
- Common Flies
- Rogue AI subroutines
- Nanomachines
Stationary Things
- Station Reactor
- Space Lift
- Life Support System
- Heavy Machinery
- Volatile Gas Container
- Plumbing System
- Orbital Space Debris
- Radioactive Waste Facility
- Ship Engine
- Terraforming Machinery
Movable Things
- Contraband
- 1d100 Cat(s) - good luck!
- Offspring (50% unwilling)
- Family Heirloom
- Fuel
- Regular Supplies
- Religious Artifact
- Intel
- Emergency Supplies
- Lost Ship
Target Location
- Space Station
- Moon Colony
- Gas Giant Refinery
- Derelict Gas Freighter
- Asteroid Mine
- Corpo Headquarters
- Research Facility
- Military Outpost
- Orbital Wharf
- Waste Removal Facility
Complications during work
- Hull breach
- Union Riot
- Security Lockdown
- EMP from a nearby Pulsar
- Space Pirate Attack
- Fire Outbreak
- Incoming Asteroid (d10 hours until impact)
- Life Support System Malfunction
- Water leak
- Sudden Solar Flare (Level 3 radiation)
Mission Twist
- Roll twice for Complications
- Client can’t deliver on reward (50% chance of upfront honesty)
- Client secretly is an AI (50% has benevolent intent)
- Task is a test for further work
- Task is illegal here (50% client knows)
- Task is also pursued by rival party (roll on Rival Party table)
- Task will need to be done in Zero-G Environment
- Find an old holodisk with a treasure map on location
- Location will cross the event horizon of a black hole in 1d10 hours
- Complication is known upfront
Rival Party
- Ultra-efficient Android Taskforce
- Out-of-luck Bounty Hunters
- Space Truckers (50% chance of being drunk)
- Former Associates (50% chance of being on good terms)
- Union Members (50% chance of being from a rival union)
- Bunch of Nerds
- Xenophobic Assholes
- Corporate Mercenaries
- Self-Aware Androids
- Veteran Ex-Marines
Reward
- Gratitude
- Favor
- Reputation
- Weekload of Supplies
- Monthload of Fuel
- Follow-up Task (double reward next time)
- Stash of vintage Heavy Metal Music CDs
- Intel
- Contact arrangement
- Ship Repair Parts
The Warden will oviously need to flesh out the details, but these can provide a fun framework to work with. If you can’t or don’t want to roll all these d10s yourself, here’s the whole thing in a neat perchance generator.
Let me know what you think!