I was introduced to D&D 3.5 in high school, and quickly started DMing for my friends. A few years later in college, I migrated to 5e.
I’ve been a lifetime DM aside from the one-shot that introduced me to D&D, and a short lived train wreck of a campaign that taught me to hate what I eventually discovered was an obnoxious imitation of Critical Role. That also taught me a valuable lesson of the kind of D&D I had no interest in whatsoever.
That was my entire experience with D&D and TTRPGs in general.
I loved D&D, and I wasn’t really aware that there were other similar games out there. But there was always a longing for something more gritty and grounded.
Eventually, the collapse of 5e led me to find likeminded people on the internet who sought good TTRPG content in the wasteland that mainstream content was becoming. Then I was introduced to the OSR through games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Shadowdark. Now I love OSR-style RPGs and I’ve started collecting every interesting RPG and adventure I can get my hands on, and either running one-shots or incorporating new interesting ideas in our regular game.
I also love sci-fi and horror, so Mothership grabbed my attention. Mothership is the intersection of many of my loves.
There are some significant differences with Mothership from what I’m used to. In a good way.
From what I’ve seen, it seems to be way more RP heavy than the average D&D game. It’s also interesting that combat is actively discouraged. That’s a fun twist on an RPG.
My table’s first adventure was the Haunting of Ypsilon-14. I significantly built out the content in the pamphlet. Maybe I’ll make it available online sometime. But the table loved it.
It seems like Mothership shines as a puzzle-solving game. Haunting was very limited in scope. There are only 5 or so rooms in the whole adventure. But each of the few locations in the adventure felt lived-in, interesting, and explorable. Like they actually matter to the location. It was great.
There were also many different ways to discover clues, and many different solutions to the problem.
That approach to a game was very different, but refreshing. I’ll definitely be incorporating elements from Mothership in our regular game, and hopefully, we’ll play Mothership more in the future.
