Creating a Double Table Mothership Module #1
A few of months ago a local fantasy bookshop, comic shop, and game shop all pulled together to organise a festival of storytelling called Questival. The plan is to show case all the different forms in which we as a society tell stories in the modern day. Something that that I think we can all agree is an amazing idea that we desperately need these days. And one of those modes of story telling is, of course, role playing games. So, I signed up to run a game of Mothership.
Since Questival is a special event, I wanted to a run a special game. We have a tiny budget though, so we can't make it special by having costumes, props or lighting (though we will probably have some budget version of these). Inspired by this blog post where someone ran a mothership one-shot module around a spa, I thought we could do something similar at Questival.
The Options
So, what are the options for a game that can't be run anywhere else? I think there are two options, either:
- A multi-table game, with multiple Wardens.
- A game that requires exploring the venue (like the blog above).
The second option there being just a multi-table game with extra steps but also slightly more difficult to setup.
What do you want from a "mega" game?
Group Size
If you've ever been a GM or a warden, you might be aware that the sweet spot for a table of players is around 4. This number is big enough that there are always ideas bouncing around and no one feels like things are too intensely focused on them. While more than this the game quickly begins to grind to a crawl, finishing scenarios becomes difficult and there is a lot of time where players might be just not involved.
If we are planning to have a mega game then no groups should ever exceed 5 people in a given "situation" led by a single warden or without some kind of guidance. So, if we have multi tables, it is five players per table, if it is wandering around exploring then there should be no more than five players interacting with a zone.
Interaction
The other thing to consider when running a big game like this is group-to-group interaction. If the groups don't interact in anyway, then they might as well be playing two separate games! Examples of interaction might be:
- One group fails a roll that results in something bad happening to the other group.
- Both groups are fighting over a common resource, like air or escape pods.
- Both groups might need to share information between each other. One team solves the hieroglyphs needed to open a locked while the other group is trying to not be killed by the alien swarm while standing outside the locked door.
- Players should swap between groups during say a negotiation or after a PC death.
Communication
A final consideration is communication. If we want groups to be able to interact, how do they communicate?
- Option 1, we have walkie-talkies. If there is something the other table or group needs to know, then we call them up. I like this, it is flexible, but it does mean you have to interrupt tables.
- Option 2, I saw in another blog (and I apologise, I can't find it now!) that they used little flags that the Wardens could see on each table. If a flag dropped, that meant a certain predetermined event had occurred that would impact the other table. Of course, this means that all of the events are totally scripted which means a lot of planning.
- Option 3, we have a table-less Warden that runs between tables and coordinates things. This works pretty well, but it does mean we need to recruit third person, and is also quite a bit of pressure on this third person to keep things straight.
What exists already?
There are not any pre-existing scenarios for Mothership, that I am aware of, that are really well geared towards multitable events. However, scenarios that will work should already have multi groups involved. Two places to start though are:
- Take The Waters. The game run in the spa mentioned at the top of the post clearly works.
- User "Manuel (licet bovi)" on the Mothership discord pointed out that in Another Bug Hunt's second scenario at the Heron Terraforming Station there are multiple groups already built in. When playing with one group, you choose one of the paths, but with multiple groups you could easily split up. Perfect!
Other scenarios that would probably fit quite well are:
- Decagon: A built in time loop, and if players die they just appear back where they started. Each loop could have everyone brought together, discuss, then head out to solve the mystery again.
- Moon Base Blues: One group starts the scenario as usual, while the other starts as the survivors on the other side of the base.
I think that is enough thoughts for now. Cya.