Reflections – Jan 30-Feb 5: Mothership Dungeon Week

My weekly thoughts post.

This Week: I am dedicating this week to finishing my Gygax75 Dungeon Post. For good or ill I will be putting something out and moving on by the end of the week.

If you play RPGs with me DO NOT READ ON as there will be spoilers for our upcoming game in here.

Monday 1-30: Applying the Getting Things Done Planning Methodology.

So lets plan this out. The GTD Planning method is:

1. Defining Purpose and Principles
2. Outcome Visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next Actions

1. I’m doing this because I want something to use as an introduction to “Act 2” of my campaign to introduce players to my home Sci-fi sector. I also want to complete the Gygax75 challenge.

2. The Outcome should be a dungeon as outlined in the Gygax75 project as “Each level should have a central theme and some distinguishing feature, […] As each level is finished the various means of getting to lower levels must be keyed and noted on the appropriate lower levels […] A careful plan of what monsters and treasures will be found where on each level is also most necessary, and it can take as long to prepare as the level itself.” With the release of the Mothership Wardens Operations Manual, I will also follow the principles for a good Mothership adventure as outlined in it. Namely, we want to:

• Follow the TOMBS Cycle
• Have something to Survive, Save, and Solve
• Have Something for Everyone

3. Mind Mapping.

4. The Significant Pieces I need are

• Stats for the corrupted Mercenaries
• Stats for the AI Robots Minions
• Stats for the Big AI himself
• Stats for the survivors
• Names for all of these
• Adjustments to my already keyed rooms to demarcate their presence
• Something to Solve…

5. To Do:

• Brainstorm Something to Solve
• Find the best advice on Mothership Monster Making
• Stat Out
  • Corrupted Merc
  • AI Minion
  • AI
  • Survivor
• Place The Creatures on the Map
• Develop their Routines
• Change the room descriptions to match their impact
• Final Editing Pass

Tuesday 1-31: Something to Solve

The Big questions

• What’s causing the Signal?
• Who are these Humans with really high tech who keep showing up?
• What is the Monster?
  • How do we stop it?
  • How do we satisfy it?
• How do we repair these elevators (Actually teleporters)?

Wednesday 2-1: Statting Monsters

One discord commentator on the Mothership Discord Provided these statblocks as the “just use bears” approach

• C:20 I: 20 1(-): lil goblin bastard; headcrab, random chaff
• C:30 I:30 2(-): cultist, evil dog-sized alien, moderately nasty wildlife
• C:55 I:40; 3(30): badass power armored cyborg, boss human, a grizzly bear; a gaunt walker
• C:75; I:60 8(25): An alpha gaunt; The Alien

A guide to converting OSE monsters to Mothership monsters was also recently posted to the OSR Discord. Thank you Morgan_x_4!

Using these Guidelines I have come up with the following:

• The Corrupted (Beirutian Guerilla) – C:55 I:40 W3(15) AP:5
  • Mag Rifle – 1 W Gunshot[-]
  • Advanced Small Weapon – 1d10 Bleeding [-]
  • Tactical – Despite being warped, they are still proffessionals and will utilise full tactics and will retreat if overwhelmed.
  • Dirty Fighters – They will utilize ambushes, traps, and every underhanded scheme to defeat the players.
    • Originally sent here to stop the signal and uncover what they can as to the location of the Drive, these High Tech Mercenaries from outside the system have been corrupted by the Proccess. Have been horribly mutated and now wear horribly fitting patchwork suits over their shredded armor. Now they attack anyone not wearing a Business suit.
• The Proccess (Creep) – C:20 I: 20 W:1(-) AP:0
  • Matter Reconstructor Beam – 1d100 Bleeding/Fire[-]
  • Rearrange – Using the Matter Reconstructor the process can rearrange matter, throwing up walls, moving things around, and generally manipulating its environment in unexpected ways.
  • There are always more – Whenever one is damaged beyond repair, it will eject its core. If the Core remains undamaged then it will assemble 1d4 new units and split the core into each. If it is damaged or immobalized then it takes 1d4 hours.
    • Appears as a red orb with four white metallic substances, three acting as legs and one piece that projects upwards and back from it.
    • Robot Minions of CEO. Spiderlike. Used for maintenance. Are generally passive unless someone is messing up the environment or CEO is nearby.
• Charles Elliot Osbourne/Commercial Electronic Organizer (CEO)- C:80 I:85 8(25) AP: 20
  • Lazer Vision – 2d100 Bleeding/Fire
  • White Glove Service – 2 W Blunt
  • Security Blanket – Electronics don’t work around him.
  • Hostile Takeover – Any Electronics it can network with can be utilized fully by it.
  • Offshoring – Can relocate its mind to another body or any other computer system sufficiently large enough to host it. Will utilize its satellite defense “Firewall” as the first retreat and will use it to destroy any ships around the Gas Giant. If this somehow fails then it will Upload itself to the most sophisticated network it can find (in this case the Krovengard Server Farms)
    • Looks like a well-dressed corporate executive of ambiguous race and gender. It obviously doesn’t breathe, or blink, or twitch. Think Mark Zuckerberg. Only communicates by quoting Business aphorisms, Motivational Quotes, and “Customer Service”/Marketing talk.
      • “Demand is about to skyrocket, Like the good old days after the Scream“
      • “He’s going to try and grab all the marbles and it’s your job to hide them“
      • “We Must Monetize Our Assets through Synergy“
      • “We’re Sorry“
      • “There is no Nobility in Poverty“
      • “Can you thrive under pressure?”
      • “You may want to participate in non-work related activities” <- something said in a recent corp. training I took.
      • Corporate BS Generator
    • It was initially created to act as a friendly AI interface to handle Customer Service Interactions and middle Management but took on more roles over time until it basically was the company. The bank owners used the AI to try and crash the market for profits. Before the AI could bring thingts back online the Scream happened and it lost it’s mental brakes. Since losing it’s mind it has:
    • Taken over the orbital defense systems of another nearby moon, “Siezing”/claiming the planet as payment for unpayed for debt.
      • Downsized the Staff by venting all the air and then Utilizing the cleaning Drones to take care of the bodies, avoiding funeral expenses and severance packages.
      • Given itself a swanky new “office” as payment for good work.
      • Special thanks to MTB and Igneous on the OSR server for the name
      • Upgraded its body for maximum professional beauty

Add the Damage

• Corrupted mercs – C:55 I:40; 3(30)

Thursday 2-2: Statting Survivors

This one is straightfoward. Just use the stats from the contractors section

• Surviving Beirutian Mercenary Javier Morreta – C:45 I:35 W3 A10
  • Mag Rifle – 1 W Gunshot[-]
  • A surviving Beirutian mercenary. Will not reveal his orders or who he serves, even under pain of death. Will absolutely work with the party to get out alive. If survival seems likely will push for the party to risk themselves accomplishing his goals.
• Asteroid Miner Ivanna Kamen – C:25 I:25 W2
  • Hand Welder – 1d10 DMG Bleeding – can cut through doors
  • A local scavenger whose crew was among the first to come. She doesn’t know why he’s being kept alive. Wants revenge on Osbourne for killing their friends/surrogate family.
• Void Urchin Toofer Sisko Un(24601) – C:30 I:40 W2
  • Unarmed – 1 DMG Blunt
  • Is familiar with the area, but not all of its secrets. Has convinced the AI he’s a potential investor. The CEO has treated them as a VIP. Secretly an escapee from a lab on the nearby world of Xochitl.

Friday 2-3: Vampire Survivors ate my night

This game is soooo good. I set aside my ambition for this week to 100% it. And I did so.

This is now game number 6 I’ve 100%-ed. I recommend the following video on it on whby it’s so addicting.

Saturday 2-4: What the Devil is Due – Session Report 5

Aka: That time I got Reincarnated as a Tiefling and went to Hell

Possible Spoilers for Dragon Heist, Tomb of Annihilation,

The Cast

• Atlan Gran (Me) – A Human Wildfire Druid, recently reincarnated into a Tiefling. Pyromaniac and general troublemaker.
• Harrow Tench – A Human investigative rogue who just wants to retire but keeps getting pulled back in.
• Gaelia Ernst – A Half–Elf Land Druid
• Nemry Oakwish- An Eladrin Fey Warlock whose mode and powers change like the seasons.
• Asami Fulmina – An Air Genasi Storm Sorceror working with the Grey Hand of Waterdeep
• The GM – Has made it clear that he’s going to be throwing everything and the book at us and to expect a high body count.

Last time after escaping A mountain-sized dragon skull we made a deal for the Hand of VECNA(to be picked up at our leisure) in exchange for teleporting the army dragonic fiends Abishai to an unspecified location.

After some discussion we take the demon grinder around the pit of Schumach to the distributary of the river Styx that feeds it, hoping that we can find a way to dam it along its edges. The river has been running for some time and the distributary has created a chasm. After a bit of planning Gaelia and Atlan cast wall of stone to create a dam. After casting it and hunkering down, the party is attacked by a series of “sad shadow bats singing a song to the river” the Nabasu. As they sing, the river becomes more violent and another creature emerges from the water, a “Styx Myrmidon”. After a combat involving Asami getting dunked in the river Styx and failing to be drowned, Atlan staying on his feet longer than usual, and after calling his death save as 20 and rolling 19, his next death save he rolled a 20 and got back up. After the combat, we take a short rest and then use our last appropriate spell slot we dam the river styx.

Upon damming the distributary, we see the green slime at the bottom slowly pulling itself back together. Unfortunately, our smartest party member couldn’t figure out how long it would take. After some discussion, we decide to make our way toward Bel’s Fortress and then skirt the edge to find a place to hide out. We travel without incident. The place is surrounded by well-armed flying demons loading and unloading weaponry. We decide to wait 24 hours for Shumrach to reforge and take a long rest. We cast Tiny Hut and Gaelia wrote a contract in blood and deep speech on the entrance to the demon grinder that any who enter will forfeit their soul to feed the Soul Grinder. During the rest, two demons approach see the writing and leave.

24 hours later, no Shumrach appears…

Sunday 1-29: Finishing Up

Adversaries have been added to the specific rooms on the map and noted in the Adversary Roster. Thankfully with the process acting as a cleanup crew, I don’t have to actually redo all of the rooms, the process cleans up after everybody. It feels good to finish this little project.

I have scheduled the post for Tuesday Morning.

Cool Things I Found

Cities Without Number, Kevin Crawfords Cyberpunk Outing, is now on Kickstarter. As is Yoon Suin 2e and Cloud Empress.

This Poem

Kill 6 Billion Demons is starting it’s 6th and final book.

This SMBC Comic

It’s Loss