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Mothership definitely isn't a system I'd use solo, especially since it's built with a "don't roll" mentality that doesn't jive well with using success/failure to divine moment-to-moment gameplay. If you ever want to try using it again though, I think Mothership's Gradient Descent module would be much closer to the dungeon crawl it sounded like you expected! I know other commentors have mentioned the Kickstarter will deliver a more "finished" game, but honestly I think the Mothership discord is a treasure trove of creativity and support. Hope it's validating to hear that the "HP/Hits" and enemy stat blocks in general are among the most asked questions. Anyway. I think I was confused by your conclusion in the video and comments, but I really enjoy Mothership for what it is.

I'm hoping you'd have a GG's Award for Solo RPGs 2021. would love to know which are your picks for solos this year and subsequent years. I think youve become the voice for solo rpgs these days!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for the comment and the thought. I’ve thought about doing a top solo RPG vid but new things come out all the time… (of course). Will keep that in mind. I will have an end of year vid, however, as I do many years. Stay tuned for that and thanks for your support of the work I do in the channel.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

@The Viridian Vitrine I don’t talk out loud when playing unless I’m making a video such as this one.

Awesome! Thanks so much for using The Fate Mill D20. Seems like it did its job by helping you move your story forward. Can't wait to see what you do next.

@Number01

2 жыл бұрын

@townhousecreative Do you have a d6 version or a whole set of polyhedral dice that have variations of this idea?

@towerhousecreative4663

2 жыл бұрын

@@Number01 First off, thanks for picking up the Fate Mill D20! It was shipped Monday. I hope you get lots of use out of it. 

Good question! When originally creating the rules for the Fate Mill, I made versions for D6, D8, D12 and D20. During testing, I found the D20 gave the most variety, and it worked nicely for most games. Releasing a full polyhedral set with the variations is way outside of my current budget. That said, if I have a moment down the road to clean them up, I’ll release the alternate tables. Is there a specific game you'd find the other variations useful for?

@HeadHunterSix

Жыл бұрын

I sure hope you're going to do another run of these soon! I was disappointed to discover that they are sold out.

Well done. Inspiring, as always GG, keep on the good work.

7:53 "shoot bugs and chew bubblegums"....that's a nice reference there. 👍👍👍

Is this even a system... feels half-done. I liked the ship creation part the most and can imagine having fun with that.

@larilaa

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

It felt incomplete to me

@DarthHugsALot

2 жыл бұрын

This is the zero edition build, there is a first edition currently running on Kickstarter apparently with some rule clarification but overall the system is intended for looser more improvisational play.

@03dashk64

2 жыл бұрын

It is absolutely a complete game and is fully playable, with a little bit of creativity of the person running the game. The base book doesn’t have any bad guys or scenarios so you have to create your own. The various supplements add campaign settings, new rules, and npc adversaries/horrors. The version 1.0 is releasing soon with updated rules and more content.

Glad I wasn't the only one that had difficulty soloing this....Good video, thanks

Thank you for this video. Coincidentally, my group are going to start a Mothership game this week and this was a particularly well-timed introduction to the game. In regards to solo RPGing for sci fi, I have a solo game for Traveller that has been going for a while. There are a number of solo resources for Traveller and I have cherry picked elements from them and have used the urban adventure generator from Scarlet Heroes (with obvious modifications) to good effect. Admittedly, I started with the old Classic Traveller scenario Marooned Alone, which is essentially a hex crawl little different from a fantasy game, but it was good fun.

Many thanks for doing this video! I am a current backer that plans on playing this solo. Hoping the creator will do something official before the campaign ends. If not, will try something myself with various Oracles.

I know this is anold video, but I just received my 1E material for the game. The “Unconfirmed Contact Reports” book is what you were looking for at the end, with examples of enemies/monsters/stat blocks.

I've been waiting for someone to do this...thank you

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Don't thank me yet.... :) I hope you tune in live and enjoy the vid.

@contactlight8079

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 oh I will be. Bought the game about a year ago including the solo rules but I can't settle in to it. I need a professional 😀

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

@@contactlight8079 Hah! I didn't use any of the solo rules that someone created. It was a memorable session... I'll just say that. :)

@contactlight8079

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 I'm looking forward to it.

@Whoochtar

2 жыл бұрын

@@contactlight8079 Off topic 😅 COYI!

I loved your comment about "plausible" . So great. I have found I now only use verisimilitude and no longer use words like realistic or plausible. Make my life easier when all I mean is consistent to the game's setting and I do not try to relate things back to my world.

@HeadHunterSix

Жыл бұрын

"Internal consistency" is another term I like to use. Some folks like to fall back on the lazy "well this is sci-fi and if we have FTL travel then..." as a justification for changes as crazy as, for instance, altering the boiling point of hydrogen (yes, that's from an actual discussion). So verisimilitude and internal consistency are important even in games or settings where some things are outside of our current level of understanding.

Very interesting video. I have to admit that I'm not interested on the theme, but I like so much the graphic design of Mothership (and I really love the mechanics of the ship creation). At the same time, I find very interesting what have you say about Scifi genre and the dificulties we face creating a story or events for this kind of enviroments. It's something I'm struggling as a newbie in solo games and, moreover, being mostly interested on this genre. But as usual, the part of the video I've enjoyed the most, the way you create all the background, more than the story itself. It's amazing how you find, from a mere dice rolling, a way to develop the story. It's hypnotic. Thank you again for sharing these moments.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for this comment. I also enjoy those parts of the gaming (the background and story creation)… sci-fi really is a soloists puzzle. I do plan on another sci-fi solo vid… probably Traveller as the base with some other goodies thrown in… we shall see. It’s a big undertaking and not sure it will make it into this year but stay tuned!

On the subject of solo Sci Fi games, I agree that balancing manageability and plausibility can be a challenge, but I've found some fun workarounds for it. My favorite so far is a character who has some engineering/mechanical skills and who trades his skill for passage. He works his way from system to system on independent ships. It can be tough to reach remote worlds this way, but sometimes getting to the adventure site is an adventure in itself. I use Universal NPC Emulator as necessary to populate the ships. This doesn't work for all stories or all settings, but I've had a lot of fun with it. Edit: 15:59 What an interesting idea! I love how you're using the oracle table to determine the narrative weight of the elements here! I'm going to have to remember that trick.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your take on this and how you develop your story

Thank you for the video, really useful. Best wishes from Argentina!

Excellent video as always. I have to agree about how much harder scifi narratives tend to be, I have trouble plotting them. And I absolutely love scifi too.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the validation from someone more experienced in this area than I am.

I was just thinking of doing this! They’re so many good tables

Thanks for this video! Very inspiring.

Re. Sci fi solo. I agree for the most part, having seen the challenges running a 4-character party solo in SWN, but Ironsworn:Starforged has been fun. Also there is a Mothership 1ed on KS that has a Warden Guide.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Doubt I will pick that up but I’m sure the content will be useful. This does feel incomplete for the reasons I mention. I think this would be the case even if you aren’t soloing. Not sure whether others have mentioned that or no. Seems the reception for this has been very positive

I don't know, I was just beginning to like Selena! :) Good video and commentary as usual!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Thx. I took her as far as I could with the material I had. I just lucked out on that roll! Lucky for me the vlogger, that is. For Serena, not so much.

Worked well for us with one of the 2 sided pamphlets (ypsilon 14) as a duo. It comes with some cool mp3 audio logs as well. GF ran 2 characters and we used a mercenary. There’s a lot of mystery going on with the modules that might be tough solo. A lot of the fun is trying to figure out what the heck is going on before you get killed and enjoying the shocking and mind bending bits along the way. Check out the free Hive Mind for more rollable tables that might inspire ideas, but I imagine this could be a tough nut to crack solo.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Thx for comment and suggestion of hive mind. I saw that but didn’t investigate it. I shall.

Great video! I wonder if the upcoming Mothership 1st edition will make it easier to solo. I guess there could be backup characters in cryopods on the ship.

nice game i really wanna try it thanks for demo it . also one thing i like the color of ur sleeves, also where can i get one of ur d20 that does the " yes.... no and ....." dice ?

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked the vid. Read the video description for info on buying the die

Could you do a video on Twilight 2000 4th edition by free league publishing they have rules for solo play in the refers guild book :) keep up the great work! Love you videos! Also They are making a new edition of Ironsworn Called Starforged would love to eventually see a video on that setting what you do with it!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

I was offered a copy of the twilight 2000 but I have not had a chance to look through it yet. And I have already done a Starforged video. It is here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/X2t5x6epZsmuitY.html Glad you enjoy my content. (turns out I used the same back ground map in that one...)

There's a solo side called the Lone On drive thru rpg that I just picked up but I still haven't had a chance to play

Since this vid posted, "Lone Star" is a solo zine for how to run it solo that works extremely well.

@GeekGamers01

3 ай бұрын

Good to know. I will look for it.

It looks like that Fate Mill die is sold out, which is a bummer. I'm always keen to acquire more tools to try out for solo gaming (and more dice, like any gamer would!)

I wasn't really able to run this as a group game, I didn't even dare to attempt soloing it... I'm working on a solo horror sci-fi game called Across a Thousand Dead Worlds that should be appealing to anyone interested in Mothership. I find soloing sci-fi RPGs much more difficult than fantasy ones, and there's definitely a lack of solo games (is there anything else aside from the upcoming Starforged?), so I help my game will fill the gap!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

What was the difficulty running it for a group?

@alejotm000

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 I was honestly too confused by the vagueness of how to implement it into an actual gameplay session. Granted, this was back when the game was originally released and there was no more material. I considered attempting it again once the two official expansions came out, and I imagine it's fairly simple to do so now with all the third party content, but at this point I'll just wait for 1e and the Warden's operations book. It's one of the most flavorful games out there, and I love everything about it, I just need more of it to be able to run it comfortably. Same goes for solo, of course...

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

@@alejotm000 Thanks for this explanation. I'm bemused by the fact that early reviewers of this game just fawned over it without mentioning some pretty major issues... I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the cozy nature of reviewers and creators...I do think it is unrunnable with at least the material that I had--not without doing major leaps yourself. I will be interested to see how it is more properly developed in the new edition.

@alejotm000

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 I can understand why people loved it upon release; I know I did, because of how evocative the setting was, and how fantastic and striking the design and layout are. I do doubt a lot of people actually ran the game though, at least until the first expansion was released... I am excited for the game's future nonetheless, and I've backed the current Kickstarter campaign because it does look they're addressing many of the issues I had with it. Also, as I mentioned before, having the plethora of third party material that exists now really makes the game more viable. I commend you for giving this one such a good go though, you're definitely braver than I am, and as always, the video was very fun and entertaining!

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

@@alejotm000 glad you enjoyed the vid. I was pushed to do it by viewers and was curious myself but that’s all the more reason that I felt so curious at the lack of things…. Even the basic “setting” as it were… I didn’t get that

I own Mothership and Dead Planet and I have owned them for a while. I was taken aback just as you because of the rules that aren't there. It's a good system but - boy - it's incomplete. I'm backing the kickstarter for 2nd Edition (yeah, I know the kickstarter says it's 1st) and it seems that the designers have heard the cries for help.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah.. disappointing on my end. Would not give them any more money from me at least!

@nanorider426

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 I will report back to you if it's any good. :)

@HeadHunterSix

Жыл бұрын

I think it was designed more with the sort of OSR philosophy (like Traveller LBB) where the GM is able to make interpretations on the fly without being a slave to the rulebook, and players are able to use their imagination more. Role play vs roll-play.

@nanorider426

Жыл бұрын

@@HeadHunterSix I have Traveller and a number of old and young RPG, and this is the most incomplete RPG I have seen. I've been a GM for over 30 years and this RPG lack half of which the GM needs. You can't bring about a monster which there is no stats on on the top of your head for example. There is a reason for the kickstarter version to be named 1.0.

@HeadHunterSix

Жыл бұрын

@@nanorider426 there's a reason that the previous edition was called "Version 0". They explicitly called it a Beta release. But it's hard to get player feedback if nobody can play it.

Personally I have an easier time to come up with Sci-Fi especially horror stuff compared to fantasy. 😄But Mothership is a really unfortunate case because it is generally so highly praised and when you just buy the basic rule set. Well, just like you say it is incomplete. There are some really basic things that are missing like examples of creatures or other enemies. From the combat example you can lean into how a fight is supposed to work, but you have to interpret a couple of things. The mercenary rules say that they only have a combat value that is used for combat and armor saves and instinct is used for all other skill checks including speed. Instead of health they use hits. Basically if they miss an armor save they take one damage without needing to roll for damage the weapon generally does. But that opens the discussion, how should critical hits be applied? Are heavy weapons also only considered to be treated as one hit? Do you perhaps apply the number of usually rolled dies as number of hits a weapon deals? If creatures are simplyfied the same way as mercenaries, why do the dead planet creatures suddenly have a speed stat? There is a lot of heavy lifting for a GM that should be build into the core rules. Which is unfortunate because while if you always run the game with the same people or as solo it might be ok to put in the extra effort. But when playing in a group especially online, you might run into situations where people expect you to GM it the same way they have experienced from a different GM and are just confused by your interpretations of the rules. I really want to like Mothership, because I like Sci-Fi and Horror, but it is just too incomplete to get a good experience out of it. I do hope that the Kickstarter release fixes the issues with the system. But I will hold of purchasing that version until it releases and I find reviews that ensure me that the games issues are fixed.

What do you use for your camera set up?

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Nothing worth emulating! :) A $13 tripod that has a broken leg... It works well enough so I haven’t bothered to get a new one...

@carloscastrejon644

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 haha! I was just curious how you manage to record from a POV angle without the tripod getting in the way! but it seems it might be something I have to get used to lol!

On the mercenaries stats it states that combat is the considered stats for armor saves for npc's (and i guess creatures). Though nothing about the hits on creatures, besides stating that npc's have a number of hits that withstand. The stats "hits: 6 (55)" i am guessing that this particular creature can endure 6 hits before dying, and the 55 is a value if you want to use real damage. Am I right? This is seriously lacking info here.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

Truly, dunno... This was an incomplete product as published in this way, as I said in the vid. Seems like they are republishing it or using community content or whatever to flesh it out.

@blamp666

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 What does the HITS stat mean? And what is the number in parentheses after it? The number of HITS an enemy has is the number of “health pools” it has. The number in parentheses is how much damage an enemy can take before they lose a health pool. Health pools, once exhausted, don’t heal back up. But if an enemy takes damage less than their health pool and then escapes, that health will heal between encounters. For example: If an enemy has HITS 2(30) then that means once you’ve done 30 damage to the enemy you deal one HIT. If you do that again, you kill it. However, if you only do 10 damage to it and it escapes, it’ll still be at HITS 2(30) when you see it again. If an enemy has no number in parenthesis after the HITS number then any amount of damage as long as it hits will work. (Example: an enemy with Hits 2 just needs to be hit twice to be killed.) Note: Damage done in excess of an enemy’s health pool by a single attack doesn’t carry over. So in the above example, if you were to deal 40 damage to the enemy, it would still have one hit left. Ultimately, the Warden will need to use common sense here. Got this out of internet.

The system has so much missing from it that I really find it hard to believe that gamers and the rpg media fawn over it as much as they do. I don't think most of them actually ever tried to play it.The current Kickstarter adds two new books that flesh out the rules and guidelines for the Warden. They also have changed the combat system from opposed rolls to a roll to hit then roll to wound target number system and changed how panic works. That's two pretty major changes considering there are few other actual game rules that are not related to designing ships or characters. It's also really annoying if you have recently bought any books for this system as you now need to buy a new set of rules and convert old books if you don't want to rebuy everything. I'm a bit tired of rpgs saying they are rules lite, improvisational, or sandbox, when what they really are is half-assed houserules that are an excuse for a graphics design exercise. I think most of this should have just been released as a sourcebook for Traveller instead of it's own system. Sorry if I'm a bit salty about this.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

I completely agree with you!! I listened only briefly to a few comments and read some reviews before buying the material for the video and it shows to me that these reviewers can't be trusted/never really look inside the material they are fawning over. There weren't even any stated enemy stat blocks! And then the enemies that were provided in the official module didn't have stats that were needed to conduct combat! How is it that nobody mentioned that! And who makes a sci fi setting without even one token random table for planet details. I had no idea how they changed for the kickstarter but everything you write makes sense in terms of people who already bought the content. I feel like I'm usually not the victim of false hype but in this case I certainly was... money not well spent! I won't be using these rules again and there is so little in the books that could work in general for anything else sci fi/rpg...

@johnmiddleton4291

2 жыл бұрын

@@GeekGamers01 It's really specifically focused on horror sci/fi video game and movie type adventures and not any sort of planetary or system exploration. The ship design exists just to have a personal stake ion the corridors you fight in. The cyberpunk systems in Pound of Flesh are really out of place in this sort of setting and seem very poorly balanced. On the bright side, the Cy Borg kickstarter from Mork Borg looks like another interesting project, though Mork Borg really isn't much of a ruleset either. At least things are stated out and make sense though. The miniatures game Forbidden Psalm based on the world is really good and worth looking into even if you just use the scenarios as rpg fodder.

@GeekGamers01

2 жыл бұрын

@@johnmiddleton4291 thanks for you thoughts and info on these systems.

@collabswithoutpermission

2 жыл бұрын

???

@johnmiddleton4291

2 жыл бұрын

@@collabswithoutpermission What are you confused about? The game is incomplete and the fact that the Kickstarter edition is adding so much more proves it.