A community compendium of house rules for The Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. This book defines a full methodology for solo and Wardenless play and includes house rules for everything from downtime to cybernetics.
Channeling the second book included with all Game Designers’ Workshop games, Advanced Rules is a 100-page wire-bound text-only zine of house rules for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG from the Mothership community with a focus on rules adapted from RV Games online magazine, The Adventure Gaming Periodical. The WIP rules are viewable here, this web page version of the zine will always be free for use.
All of the rules are being revised for the final 1e version of Mothership with professional editing by Roz Leahy beyond their original online publication.
Included in Advanced Rules
Solo and Wardenless Play Guidelines by Violet Ballard
Some Ship Combat Rules by Joshua Justice
Miniships by Greenspore
Streamlined Debt and Downtime System Adapted From Rules by Jack Shirai
Psion and Psionics by Monovektor
Surgical Rolls by Violet Ballard
Social Rolls by Violet Ballard
Ultimate Bad Ass by Christian Sorrell
Squad Combat and Stacking by Violet Ballard
Accessible Maps by Violet Ballard
Additional Classes by Joshua Justice, Christian Sorrell, and Violet Ballard
Cybermod, Slickware, Drug, Robotics, and AI Design Sequences by Violet Ballard
G.O.B.L.I.N. - Gremlin's OGRE Basics: Living in Neuralware by edbury
Alternate Skills by Violet Ballard
Wound Only play by Violet Ballard
Alternate Loadouts for stock classes by Violet Ballard
Alternate d100 Trinket and Patch tables by Violet Ballard
Quick reference for players and for Panic Engine and pocketmod designers by Violet Ballard
Several print & play Warden and player aids
The definitive collection for Wardens and game designers ready to hack Mothership 1e.
The book is already complete and has received developmental editing. The content is available online for free here, this campaign is paying for the final pieces needed for physical production. We have set a conservative timeline based on how complete the book is, and we hope to complete fulfillment sooner than is listed here.
We have a public Trello page to track the progress of writing, editing, indexing, and typesetting now that we have funded.
Printing will be by Mixam. Advanced Rules will be wire bound and printed on uncoated 70lb text paper to make it easy to read the text and to write in and highlight the book. The cover will be a heavier satin 130lb cover paper with matte lamination. This heavy cover, lamination, and wire binding gives this reference book many usable years at your table while staying affordable. Finally, zines will be individually shrink wrapped to prevent damage to the wire binding during shipping.
Fulfillment Providers
Canada - Compose Dream Games U.K. and EU - GamesQuest UK U.S and Rest of World - RV Games via Amplifier
Shipping Estimates
Shipping will be charged later via BackerKit survey, and these estimates are subject to change.
U.S. - Tracked - Sales Tax - $12
UK - Untracked - DDP - £10
UK - Tracked - DDP - £12
Canada - Untracked - GST - $12 CAD
EU - Tracked - IOSS
Austria (15€), Belgium (14€), Bulgaria (14€), Croatia (16€), Cyprus (23€), Czech Republic (15€), Denmark (17€), Estonia (20€), Finland (19€), France (14€), Germany (12€), Greece (19€), Hungary (13€), Ireland (14€), Italy (15€), Latvia (20€), Lithuania (18€), Luxembourg (14€), Malta (19€), Netherlands ($13), Poland (16€), Portugal (16€), Romania (14€), Slovakia (14€), Slovenia (16€), Spain (14€), Sweden (14€)
Rest of World - Pricing by Country - Must pay Duties and Fees Upon Arrival
U.S. Sales Tax Sales tax will be charged for orders shipping to California or Texas.
Canadian GST A 5% charge will be added to your order to accommodate for the GST that must be paid upon import by Compose Dream Games, so you will not be responsible for any duties or fees upon arrival.
U.K. Delivery Duty Paid (DDP) There will not be any duties or fees due upon arrival for UK shipments since we are working with a U.K. fulfillment provider.
EU Import One Stop Shop (IOSS)
We are able to offer IOSS shipping on orders to the following EU countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
IOSS shipping allows us to charge you up front for all duties and fees that come as a consequence of importing books. We charge a flat 25% of declared value to cover the import tax & duties of your zines, and our additional administration costs associated with doing so. You will not need to pay anything upon arrival of your zine.
Individual physical games and accessories, including a Chessex Mothership dice set, and a dice tower will be available via your BacketKit survey after the campaign is complete. Digital only add-ons will not be available, you can purchase digital copies of any of our products via our publisher page at DriveThruRPG.
Add-ons will be charged $2.50 shipping and handling for each light item and $5 for each heavy item.
Our minimum funding level pays for finishing editing and layout, producing the physical books, and paying BackerKit and Stripe fees while producing a very modest profit that covers the cost of the developmental editing that occurred as part of writing the manuscript and a small amount of royalties for key contributors.
5% of all profits will also be donated to the family of the legendary game designer Jennell Jaquays to help them cover medical and funeral expenses.
RV Games is a Queer publisher of auteur tabletop games.
RV Games Logo
Violet Ballard (she/they) - Lead Writer and Producer
Violet Ballard
Dr. Violet is a proudly Queer mom and educator from Fresno, California. She is the owner of RV Games and the writer of the Mothership modules Slasher and Rampant.
Roz Leahy (she/her) - Editor
Roz Leahy
Roz is an Irish writer, editor and zine maker in Edinburgh. She's been playing and making games for decades and is always excited to being her experience to a new project. Over the last few years she has worked on a number of Mothership Projects, including Cloud Empress, Abilities Considered Unnatural, and Bio-Drones and Cryo Clones. She also contributed proofreading to the Mothership 1e Core Books. When she's not turning her hobby into a career, she's giving workshops on science and game design and watching old movies.
Christian Sorrell (he/they) - Contributing Writer
Christian Sorrell
Christian Sorrell, known online as MeatCastle, is a full-time writer, editor, and designer. He is the creator of the upcoming game Tacticians of Ahm, several Mothership modules including The Bloodfields at Blackstar Station, and supplements for a number of other indie roleplaying games. For more of his work, visit https://meatcastlegameware.com/.
Jack Shirai (he/him) - Contributing Writer
Jack Shirai
Jack Shirai (he/him) is a Canadian video game developer who writes random encounter tables to escape from writing code. You can find more of his work at yourgmjack.itch.io, or by cracking open MMOs that came out more than 20 years ago.
Greenspore (he/him) - Contributing Writer
Greenspore
Greenspore is the creator pre-Mothership 1e Shipbreaker’s Toolkit hack known as Miniships and is part of upcoming 1e adventure anthologies. A rules lite and OSR DM of 11 years, he is currently in the process of taking on editing professionally in his day job and loves working with other passionate creatives and nerds by night. https://greenspore.itch.io/
Joshua Justice (he/they) - Contributing Writer
Joshua Justice
Joshua Justice is a TTRPG writer/designer, and music afficiando. They DJ and put out a long-running radio show on Freeform Portland. Their cat Bobbie is their muse.
HÃ¥kan Lundgren (he/him) - Contributing Writer
HÃ¥kan Lundgren
HÃ¥kan Lundgren AKA monovektor lives in the cold, dark forests of northern Sweden. He has yet to play his first session of TTRPGs.
edbury (he/him) - Contributing Writer
edbury
Edbury lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains with his cat, Lemmy. Together they decode and republish transmissions from a source known only as "Gremlin."
Curious Friend (they/them) - Cover Illustrations
curiousfriend
Curious Friend is a non-binary visual artist & graphic designer based out of Fresno, CA. They appreciate whimsical line work, bold color palettes, & naturally imperfect symmetry. When they aren’t hunched over a canvas they enjoy hiking in the mountains, tending to their collection of exotic houseplants, and being attacked by their 3-legged cat.
5% of the profits from this campaign will be donated in memoriam to the family of the legendary game designer Jennell Jaquays to assist them with medical and funeral expenses.
