NSR:
Some popular third-party material for Mothership seems to de-emphasize the horror in favor of the lo-fi sci-fi that the system also models. What are your thoughts on how Mothership fits into the overall universe of sci-fi TTRPG systems if it’s not just horror?
Sean:
Hey [NSR]!
Great question. I think Mothership aims to be a great sci-fi game as well as a great horror game, but there’s some give and take there. This is part of what I like about having a healthy 3pp scene is that you can serve more niches more effectively. But my hope is that over the life of the line, you’ll be able to put together a compelling Mothership campaign without much horror if that’s what your table wants.
In terms of where we fit in, I think Traveller is the goat and SWN is always in the equation. I think our place is in a game that gets people to the table and playing quickly and my hope is that our legacy will be that we helped trained and prepare new Wardens to run RPGs in a way that I would have loved when I started gaming.
NSR:
That’s interesting because I think of the stress system as at the very core of the game mechanically. I had a group play through the Desert Moon of Karth with it and it went fantastically and we had a great time, but managing that stress was of course the major concern as we went.
Sean:
Yeah I think if you rip out stress and panic you have a sort of deadly d100 game that doesn’t penalize you for rolling too much. Which is fine! But I think you could play an Apollo 13 mothership game if you just changed the panic table to be more mundane (even just like panic means you’re at disadvantage on rolls for 1d10 hours and that’s it).