Afterplay report Haunting of Ypsilon-14 with internet fam

First time running (or playing) Mothership RPG. 3 players, two experienced GMs and players, 1 newbie to TTRPGs, with none of us having played the game before. Almost had a panic attack in the beginning but covered my eyes and took a few deep breaths and got back to it. Had a few more brainfreezes, almost had another meltdown when they players first hit combat (more on that later once I get over my personal shit and get to the actual game), but fortunately, having two experienced GMs, or as I like to call them, rules-understanders, lol, read through combat and saves and shit with me helped a LOT. If they weren’t there I would have thrown out a lot of stuff just cuz I couldn’t parse it in the moment. (I have that problem a lot, especially if I’m already anxious. I’ll scan and scan a page and see words but none of it is connecting. I was definitely doing that last night.) (As another new-time Mothership warden (gamemaster) said in an after action report on the Mothership Discord, “[I ran it] very rules lite as I forgot the rules.” Which is like, a huge LOL mood for me.)

Notable Quotes

“I want to see an alien!” oh you sweet summer child Dr. Linne Is this an ironic #1 Worker or an unironic #1 Worker patch? “Wouldn’t you like to know.” “I am not a robot.”

Happenings

Game started with Teamster Scogg, Scientist Linne as;dflkj (Dr. Linne), and Android a;sldkfja;dfj 487 being greeted by Sonya and being informed that there’s gonna be delays bringing the cargo up, since Mike had gone to repair something but hadn’t returned. Sonya, not thinking Scogg would take her up on it, asked if he’d take a look and see if he could finish the repair if they were in a hurry to get going. So they just, fucking, decided to mosey on down to the mines.

(At this point I was a little flustered because I didn’t really think we’d be jumping straight into the mines and was regretting accidentally leading them to it. In retrospect, I shouldn’t be kicking myself over it… Sonya did mention that they could hang out in the mess with the others for dinner if they’d like, so maybe it wasn’t my fault, hahaha.)

I had provided them the map via that interactive terminal that… didn’t include details of the mine itself, d’oh. So Scogg called Sonya up again to get some more details on where Mike could be. She seemed flustered (may as well lean into it at this point, you know?), but said that he was saying something about “the water”? Fixing something to do with water? At this point, 10 mins had passed and Sonya got to be our first monster victim. (D’oh, I should have linked the shower into this. Also, would the monster have killed her if she was making noises? Hmm.) Communications cut out. Not thinking much of it, the players pulled out medscanners and decide to see if they could sense Mike’s life signs.

Somewhere in this general time period they get a call from Dana, who is looking for Sonya, who had seemed to be talking to them last. Was she down there with them?

Having decided that the monster would return to the antechamber after each Devouring, I led the players towards the fissure in the cave wall, saying they sense one life sign past this way, though I did not specify human. XD My reasoning is that although the monster might not be back yet, it’d still be… that vague direction? Look, it’s all theater in the mind or someshit all right.

Android a;sdlfkjas;dlfj was volunteered to go in first, though Scogg and Dr. Linne quickly followed when things seemed somewhat okay. I described the disgusting, embryonic, pussy pod (lol pussy. pus-y.) (i mean, the module does specify a vertical gash in the pod, so yes, it really is a pussy pod.) let me reiterate that yellow pus. goo. I called for Fear Saves! Then we spent a long time figuring out Fear Saves!

Somewhere in here, Scogg is like hell no and flees, but comes back when nobody else seems to follow.

Having done that, I also remembered that I needed to roll to see if the Monster was in the room with them, and guess what! it was! Knowing the Monster likes to watch its prey, I let it do just that because I didn’t want to get into combat yet. L. O. Fucking. L.

Android starts medscanning the pussy pod and then the next ten minute timer went off. Cue me laughing to myself because I guess the timer was a sign that we’re just gonna do combat now.

They saw nothing, perhaps a slight ripple in the air, before Android somethingsomething, felt a wet mouth around the arm that had been outstretched, as the others only saw their arm disappear, while Dr. Linne was stunned with fear.

After some agonizing failures to make a dent against the monster with their random equipment, Scogg bodily uses the crowbar against the monster to shove it off THE ANDROID 487 and they finally book it out of there.

Things seem to have taken a turn for the worse upstairs, as the players escape out of the mine. The miners are all distressed that now Sonya is missing too. Scogg assumes there are more than one monster and tells everybody that he and his team are leaving because they just dealt with an invisible monster thing down below and they aren’t going to stick around, cargo be damned! Jerome and Dana block the way to Docking Bay 2 saying that isn’t right, they can’t just leave, what if they were lying and they’re the ones disappearing Mike and Sonya! Combat ensues. Und;lj 487 shoots their fucking tranq gun at Dana, who brushes it off. Jerome comes after them as well, still just trying to subdue.

At some point, The Monster has returned up top and has gotten Monica. (Nooooooooo, poor Prince.)

Mid-fight there’s screaming in the quarters that stop the fight, and they run into see Ashraf (well, the Players didn’t catch his name) in mid-Devouring. Kantaro stood in the corner in shock, while Prince the cat stared and hissed in obvious distress.

They can’t save Ashraf.

487 wades in to fight the monster like a fucking badass. He is Devoured.

At this point either everybody flees out towards the ships and I let them, or the Monster decides he’s got indigestion from devouring a synthetic lifeform and goes back to the Pod to heal. Combat is a fucking haze to me. All I know is, 487 was a goddamn badass. Dead, but a badass. Cat is gone, having run off towards the washroom. Kantaro is still in shock (and probably starting to melt).

Dana is now convinced Scogg was telling the truth about the Monster. Scogg offers everybody in this room space on their cargo ship to gtfo. Dana protests, saying Rie and the cat are still alive and need to be retrieved. Scogg scoffs and says he’s not staying behind for a fucking cat. Kantaro does not feel well and eagerly takes a spot on the ship. Jerome? I don’t remember. Dana mutters something about the other ship in Docking Bay 1 and says good riddance to them all.

As they fly away, Scogg rips off his “I am not a robot” patch, remembering how 487 died to protect them. Dr. Linne decides he’s never fucking coming out to space again, even if he didn’t technically get to see an alien.

487’s synthetic life finally shuts down in the digestive tract of the monster as he is joined by more meat. His last thought: “This… sucks.”

And Kantaro coughs yellow goo into his hand as Scogg and Dr. Linne look on in horror.

Some huge “WTF” questions as a gamemaster:

• Are you supposed to keep track of players’ character sheets? Because that sounds like a fucking logistical nightmare. I kept some notes on them but as play progressed I realized I should have noted down their stats and shit on a cheatsheet.