Year of the Rat
Today I ran Year of the Rat for some chums on Discord. First time running on-line. Didnt miss a beat. I think this was my best session yet, from my perspective. I pushed the combat to where I wanted it to be and I am slowly but surely memorizing procedures. I didnt rush. But man, I was covered in sweat when I finished! I mustve been nervous. Really, it felt like MCing an event or show.
I ran the horrors with as much brutality as I possibly could. The Chaoting were a force to be reckoned with. The princeling swarm was a constant nuisance and caused a lot of collateral damage in a tight room. The herald drove the tension, the players thought it was dangerous. And Shu Di was a menace, ultimately killing and eating both players but not before they caused it to bleed.. so maybe it just bled out after they died. I actually forgot to emphasise that it was bleeding to the players, I think that would have made the ending more satisfying.
One of the players is kinda not into MoSh which is fair! We have very different interests and goals for RPGs! What was epic was that they didnt make it my fuckin problem, they were such a good player. Both players were great. It makes a big difference playing at a full table where everyone understands the game and knows whats up, all having a different kind of fun.
One of the players also mentioned a tension between Mothership being an OSR dungeon crawl or a genre-savvy tropey wink at its cinematic inspirations. I think, ultimately, Mothership is its own, weird, unique third thing. It's definitely NSR, and I think it implies a wholly different tone from either of those things. The Appendix N of the Warden's Operating Manual lists a wide variety of inspirations, while players and game designers are pulling from their own. Its a gumbo or something.
I feel that the violent encounters are very kinetic in Mothership. That's what I liked about this session. Also, it had the best map in a module Ive run so far. It does stretch the limits of believability, but maybe MoSh can be a hyperviolent, cruel cartoon. The black box of the casino-ship is stashed in a giant slot machine and the keycard mechanism is pretty resident evil. I dont mind! I think its both sick and ill, just very exuberant.
I made a mistake while running where I thought a door was locked but it actually was not. I misread the map. Its not like they didnt have other ways in, so it doesnt matter too much. Was not gamebreaking.
One of the players said it might not be a great module, one of them seemed to dig it as much as I did, but I can see why some people wouldnt like it on aesthetic grounds.
SURVIVE: There were no survivors (except the contractor who failed his loyalty check). SOLVE: The players had no idea what went down. SAVE: The players did not recover the blackbox.