The Benign Brown Beast

A whimsical mini-campaign set in rural medieval France. Players are monks who must gain the allegiance of local monstrous factions in order ...

One of the main inspirations for the Palace Semi-Infinite is The Gardens of Ynn , and one of the things I love about Ynn is the ritual entr...

Rival adventuring parties are a classic device. But if I expect one to appear more than once, I'd like to make it an explicit foil to th...

In many editions of D&D, everyone learns a handful of languages at character creation, and then either never thinks about them again or ...

Into the Odd is my one-shot game of choice. It has just enough of everything. Just enough mechanics, just enough character, just enough wor...

(Spoilers below for various Star Wars properties.) With the final death of Emperor Palpatine, history was ended. The Skywalker destiny dou...

Construction on York Minster Cathedral was finished in 1472, having begun c. 1220. For two-hundred and fifty years, the unfinished cathedral...

Quest World™ is my entry into The Great Troika! Pocket Sphere Jam . For the unfamiliar, a pocketmod is a small booklet folded from a sing...

I’ve enjoyed hearing how people have made use of Crisis on Christmas Prime in the last few weeks. I hope that by providing a brief sample a...

Until tomorow (22 Dec 2020), the Mothership Discord server is hosting the 20x20 Jam. Make a piece of Mothership content (any sort) in Plays...

Flavors of Horror I’ve been thinking recently about why the early episodes of the Magnus Archives hooked me so immediately. In addition to...

A random event or “random” is an idea I’m borrowing from the MMORPG RuneScape , although it may exist in other contexts or games also. I tho...

The implicit setting of PALACE RUN . The palace is richly-appointed, labyrinthine, and endless. Some would say “infinite”, but it is surely ...

I’ve had the pleasure to run three new systems in the last year or so, and I’ve collected some notes here. Mothership Mothership is a Sc...