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GRADIENT DESCENT: Module for Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG

Created by Tuesday Knight Games

A brand new zine-sized module for the Mothership Sci-Fi horror RPG. Androids, AI, memory, and existential horror abound.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Only 48 hours left! Hacking pamphlet unlocked! And a new (final?) Stretch Goal
over 4 years ago – Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 12:24:59 PM

Whoa! Get ready to hack some terminals, cowboys!

Alright, Luke and I are pretty excited about this one. Hacking can be a super fun addition to your Mothership game (and even allow you to dip into some sweet slickworld cyberpunk adventures) and it doesn't have to slow everything to a crawl. We're excited to show you what we come up with.

There's only 48 hours left to back, and this next stretch goal is gonna be a fun one.

$65k Hive Mind Issue 02

This one's a bit a way, but if we make it, it'll be pretty great. Hive Mind Issue 01 debuted on the con circuit in 2019 and we're ready to sort out Issue 02. What is Hive Mind? Well it's a popular channel on our Discord where wardens such as yourselves can crowdsource the creation of awesome d10 lists! Issue 01 had custom classes, space pets, space drugs, stoways, awkward situations that occur when the gravity goes off -- in short, it had IT ALL!

If we hit this stretch goal, everyone who backs at the Print + PDF or Megabundle levels will get a physical copy of Hive Mind Issue 02 FOR FREE! We've got the amazing Evlyn Moreau on art again and check out the cover! In short, tell your friends so we can unlock this awesome stretch goal.

PDF Warden Screen Unlocked! One Week Left and a New Stretch Goal!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Dec 11, 2019 at 10:53:06 PM

Whoa! Sorry for the delayed update, dad-mode and the holidays have got me S W A M P E D!

That being said, we have no unlocked the PDF Warden Screen for Gradient Descent! A lot of you want it in Portrait as well as Landscape mode, so we'll see what we can do on that, no promises though.

In the meantime, we've got a brand new stretch goal -- a PDF pamphlet of expanded Hacking Rules for Mothership!

We've been wanting to do this for awhile, and we almost put it into the module itself, but instead opted awhile back to make as much room for the megadungeon as possible. However, with this stretch goal we'll release a printable 2-sided tri-fold pamphlet with our take on how to incorporate hacking into your game.

Hacking has always been a thorn in the side of cyberpunk and sci-fi gamers, often times amounting to just a solo game that the hacker player plays while everyone else just kind of sits around staring off into space.

Luke and I have worked hard on trying to solve this problem, both for the players and wardens, so that you can create meaningful choice, and explore the digital wasteland at a variety of different levels. We hope you dig it!

Patches unlocked! Brand new stretch goal!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 06:04:01 PM

Awesome! We'll be doing a custom patch just for Gradient Descent! I can't wait to toss some designs around.

We're really excited and have already started brainstorming what our exclusive patch for Gradient Descent will be. We've had some fun thoughts -- everything from former employees of Cloudbank to some superstitious patches worn by the Divers. We can't wait to show you what we come up with.

New Stretch Goal: PDF Warden's Screen

This one is cool, we haven't done it before. Essentially, it's a PDF with three printable pages landscape style for use as a Warden's Screen for Gradient Descent specifically. We want to put the encounter tables or some generation tools on there so you can reduce page flipping. Toss these in your universal GM's screen of choice when you're running the game and throw them in a binder when you're done. 

Brand New Review for A Pound of Flesh

Ben Milton of Questing Beast did a video review of A Pound of Flesh and it really highlights what we're trying to do with Mothership. Take a look, and if you don't have APOF already, toss $15 onto your pledge to grab it as an add-on after the campaign ends.

What's Next?

We have a lot more cool stretch goals coming up that we want to share with you. If you want to help the campaign the best thing you can do is to run a game for a friend or a group of strangers at your friendly local game store. Playing the game is the best way to support us. Barring that, writing a blog post or a session report and sharing it online to give people a taste of what the system is like helps a lot too. But no matter what, we appreciate your pledges and your support. Mothership truly would not be here without you.

Oh here is a computer joke I googled.

Q: How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. It's a hardware problem.

Funded! What's next?
over 4 years ago – Wed, Nov 20, 2019 at 08:47:03 PM

Thank you all so much for backing and funding Gradient Descent! We're so excited to see this project be as amazing as it can be. So what's next?

Seriously, we're all blown away by how quickly we funded and how pumped everyone is for the work we're doing. We've already nailed down a couple stretch goals so let's go ahead and get the new one out of the way since I know some of you are already thinking about it:

$30,000 Gradient Descent Patch

That's right -- we're doing another kickstarter exclusive iron on patch, this time for Gradient Descent. We're kicking around some ideas around the club (employee badge at Cloudbank? Android model number? Let us know if you have any cool ideas in the comments) and we're pumped to get a final design together. Get your battle vests and coveralls ready for this one!

Seriously though, thanks everyone.

We're working really hard to make this the best sci-fi megadungeon in existence. Luke is writing words and then immediately throwing them in the garbage to make room for all the bullet points I want to throw in. Jarrett is cutting content left and right. Nick is sketching and re-sketching until his nightmares are populated only with the blank stares of a thousand androids (this isn't new). It's been a really wild ride to see the Mothership community grow and we hope that you'll all enjoy this next addition to the world. 

If you want to help us, the best thing you can do is spread the word! Write a blog post about a session you played, or review the game on DriveThruRPG or Itch.io. The best thing you can ever do to help us though is to play the game with someone who has never played before. Just get out there and have fun.

Also, here's a computer joke I googled:

Human: What do we want!?

Computer: Natural language processing!

Human: When do we want it!?

Computer: When do we want what?