OTHERSHIP

OTHERSHIP is a sci-fi horror roleplaying game of survival, stress and space hulks.

Great ghost ships hang unmoored from time amongst the stars. Humanity, spread so thin they resemble the stars themselves, know not of what past or future alien race from which these hulks were birthed. Only that they contain powerful technology and unimaginable riches. Discover these treasures and make it back to your ship and life between these cold stars might become bearable.

This was first published in Wyrd Science Issue 7. Get it here! 

FAQ:

Is this a joke about demaking Mothership where you've cut off the M on purpose?

Exactly! Mothership is famous for how complicated it is. So I thought I would simplify it for fun and to save paper (this is an approximately 99% optimization on mothership). Additionally, we're using less dice with smaller numbers, which I am led to believe is good for the environment. I believe I came up with it while working on an adventure for C M Lowry's Four Borg: https://cmlowryauthor.itch.io/four-borg or possibly while on the phone to him. Check out Beyond Cataclysm.

Is this compatible with Mothership?

Yes! Well, sort of. You could play a Mothership adventure with the system with the minor adaptation of there being only one stat. I am not sure how satisfying it would be. If you do, let me know in the comments!

Does Sean McCoy know about this? Will he send an armed Luke Gearing to your house to have you *checks table* fed to the hobgoblins?

I have shared an early version of this with Sean and he said he would not do that. (Also that I've not infringed on any of their copyright as it stands, which is obviously important). I have his blessing.

I've printed it, how do I fold it?

Cool! You fold it hotdog once, then hamburger once after that.

Pardon?

Oh, so you fold it:

1. longways first, so you have one long side with the cover and player sheets and one side with the game instructions.
2. fold this in half, bringing the two short edges together
3. now you should have a cover with a monster on it! Inside should be two pages of rules! On the back, there should be a character sheet to photocopy! When you unfold it, the other side should show a map, the right way up for the GM to use

What about an easier way to do character sheets and player maps? I don't want to draw it out for them!

There's a file for that! Download the player maps and character sheets on this page. They should be free even if you've not bought the game or aren't logged in (hopefully!)

Who did the art and map and layout and writing and design?

Me! This was a project about self containment and running as much idea into as little a space as possible! The monster was painted using some 10-15 year old 'Warhammer paint' on black card. The map as a lazy abuse of the shape tools in Affinity publisher.

I love it so much that I want to make content for it, use this format, or tell you about it!

That's so nice of you to say. You can make content for it, but you have to tell me about it! And don't be TRASH. You can fold paper however you want. You can bluesky me!