Scott at the Tabletop #1 (March 2025)
I have been hooked on tabletop gaming since I got the red box Classic Dungeons and Dragons game around age 12. I cut my teeth on RPG’s ranging from the aforementioned D&D to Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu and Vampire – the Masquerade as well as playing various TCG’s at the height of their 90’s popularity most specifically Magic – The Gathering and Legend of the Five Rings. As far as board games are concerned I got hooked on those when playing Richard Garfield’s classic Robo Rally over 30 years ago.
In the last few years I have gotten rehooked on tabletop games, and started writing about them here and there on ECAV. Now though I’m going to use this space as a monthly column to discuss new games and classic content that I have either read or played recently. This month is focused exclusively on 3 TTRPG’s the science fiction system Traveller, the Sci-Fi Horror OSR system Mothership, and the pulp horror that can be found in Achtung! Cthulhu.
Achtung! Cthulhu – Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide
When I got back into TTRPG’s after about 15 years around 2017, one of the first games I picked up after perusing the current edition of D&D was Chaosium’s iconic Call of Cthulhu. I loved this game when I was younger, and found I still love it now. quickly found the Pulp Cthulhu supplement, and realized that the blend of cosmic horror and pulp filled action made a lethal combo. It is then I discovered Modiphius Games and their 2D20 game Achtung! Cthulhu. This setting was meant to be over the top pulp with simple rules and an amazing World War II setting. If you could adapt the Hellboy comic into game form (which technically has been done) it might resemble something akin to what Modiphius has created here. A few months ago Modiphius put out a starter set for the system (which was included in last year’s ECAV gift guide) putting the game back on to my gaming map, and finding an excellent way to introduce new players and GM’s to the system.
Needless to say I needed more so now the Gamemaster’s Guide and Player’s Guide are in my possession. To start I’ll say I think to get the best overview of this game (and this is speaking from a GM perspective) that I would recommend getting the starter set which includes a streamlined version of the rules, the setting, and a starter adventure which works as an excellent way for both sides of the game equation to learn the rules. Unfortunately, one of the few weaknesses I can find in the GM’s guide is the lack of a starter module (though you could download the free quickstart to fill in that gap).
Achtung! Cthulhu is the 4th iteration of this particular setting with the first 3 working with Call of Cthulhu’s BRP system followed by Fate and Savage World versions. This version is pure Modiphius utilizing the 2D20 System used on games like Fallout, Star Trek – Adventures, and Conan (Conan is now OOP). The system boils down to taking the attribute and skill needed to complete an objective and rolling 2D20 plus any addition you can buy using Momentum and Fortune (more on that later). The object is to roll under that Attribute/Skill value and depending on the target number attempt to obtain as many successes as required. Any additional successes will earn the player momentum which can be used to buy more dice for their dice pool as well as other things. More rare in the game is Fortune, which a player starts with, but is harder to get back. These can do things like turn failed rolls into successes or rewrite one of the truth’s in the game (a fact about the location they’re in, the NPC’s their against, etc).
The Player’s Guide contains all the rules players need to know (and also some they probably don’t), it contains basic setting information and some high level details on the various major factions in the game. It goes into character creation, combat rules, how magic works on the battlefield and off, and much more. Gamemaster’s Guide on the other hand is more of a setting book giving GM’s in depth detail about all the factions and settings as well as a more thorough version of the rules present in the Player’s Guide a Bestiary, weapons/equipment, and a more comprehensive spell section (the game offers Battlefield and Ritual Magic, in the Player’s Guide only a handful of Ritual spells are include there are many more here). One thing that needs to be called out is the fantastic artwork here. I love great RPG artwork and the artwork here really gives an excellenet visual look to the Pulp WWII setting of the game as well as helps display the tone of the game for both player’s and GM’s. Both books come highly recommended for fans looking for an over the top, simple to run, pulp Lovecraft setting!
Mothership – Deluxe Edition
Mothership is quite possibly the most exciting RPG set I’ve looked at this year, and the deluxe edition that was funded via Kickstarter and is now available for regular purchase maybe one of the best all encompassing TTRPG sets I’ve ever seen. Mothership (1e) is basically a sci-fi horror RPG taking it’s primary influence from films like Alien and Aliens, Starship Trooper, Blade Runner if not more. The simple of it is the game is in the OSR style of simple dungeon delving (in this case in an intergalactic setting) with easy to make (and kill) characters whose stories develop not from what’s on the page, but from the actions of the characters alone. Mothership could be easily describe as Traveller meets Call of Cthulhu blended together with a neo-OSR aesthetic.
Like Call of Cthulhu and the other BRP (Basic Roleplaying) games, Mothership is based on a D100 system that has players attempt to roll under a particular stat. It’s an interesting and straight forward mechanic that makes the game so easy to pick up and play. Also included is a stress/panic mechanic where players who experience horror or failure obtain more stress, and then in situations where panic is involved roll on the D100 add their stress, and check a table for the result of their panic. There is a stress mechanic also in the Alien RPG from Free League, but in many ways I feel this one works better.
The Deluxe Edition box set is basically a GM’s toolkit for getting started and running right out of the box. This box set includes 8 zine style books over half of which are modules of different styles which gives the GM a lot of options when getting started. The set includes the Player’s Survival Guide which has basically all the core rules from character creation to combat and more. The Warden’s Operation Manual, which is background details for the GM exclusively on the game world, and how to run a successful game of Mothership. Unconfirmed Contact Reports acts as a Mothership Bestiary include bizarre, horrifying, and unique creatures and the stats to run them. This is followed by the Shipbreaker’s Tookit, which is a great asset for those that want to play a long term interstellar campaign akin to Traveller. It has rules for ship statistics, ship combat (using MegaDamage), travel rules, and fully stated out ships and vehicles. My one complaint here is the lack of ship creation rules ala Traveller’s High Guard. I know the objective with a game like Mothership is simplicity, but I feel it’s a missing addition for those of us who want the added crunch of building a ship.
The box includes 4 modules including the “Starter” Adventure Another Bug Hunt. Another Bug Hunt takes its inspiration from a blend of Aliens and Starship Troopers as a group of players land on a planet that is seemingly abandoned. It turns out some creatures were hibernating there, and have now gotten the survivors trapped in a single location, but they have plans to fight back and escape. This is such a great starter adventure as it accurately presents the vibe of the game, while giving sandbox options to players and wardens, while also including tips throughout each of the 4 sections (less as the module goes on) to help them get started. Also included are the modules a Pound of Flesh and Dead Planet which are such creepy and stressful affairs and feel like an excellent follow up point to Another Bug Hunt.
The star of the show here is Gradient Descent an unbelievably detailed 6 floor space station dungeon crawl which mixes horror with bizarre science fiction to create something insanely special. Gradient Descent adds a mechanic to the game called “The Bends” which makes player’s increasingly conflicted as to whether they are human or one of the androids that populate this station. It’s also an increasingly deep module with 62 pages of content, but which would normally fill a book twice its size. Mothership gets away with so much in so little, by using minimalist graphic design elements to express the content of the location. They use a lot of shortcuts and symbols to get details across, and while it took a while for me to read this one due to having ADHD I found it an absolute master class in module design. The same could be said for the rest of the books in this set, which utilize unique art and design elements to get a lot across in very little space. I could compare this to the recent “Borg” trend in RPG design (Mork Borg, Cy Borg, etc). However, while those books while fun to read and play seem more like an art project that exploded, everything here is more clear and concise as a whole and thus easier to read once you get through a few of these.
The Deluxe set also includes 12 cardboard standees, a double sided map, D100 and panic dice, and a Warden’s Screen. This is such an immense collection of material for the Mothership RPG that I can’t think of a better way for a new Warden to get started. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Mongoose Traveller 2E (Bounty Hunter, Small Craft Catalogue, the Pirates of Drinax)
Since the 90’s I’ve been kind of addicted to collecting splat books for my favorite RPG’s. In the 90’s my shelves could have broken from the sheer amount of AD&D 2E books on it. Nowadays Mongoose Traveller 2E scratches that itch. It’s a game I don’t get to run very often (though I might be changing that very soon), but the sheer volume of books with player and referee options available is immense and I find myself obsessing over them. As such 2 of the most recent Mongoose Traveller books The Bounty Hunter Guide and Small Craft Catalogue have been of interest to me recently.
The Traveller – Bounty Hunter book is a 160 page tome detailing… what else? Playing as a bounty hunter and running a bounty hunter focused campaign. The book starts with an introduction to the concept of the bounty hunter in science fiction, though this concept should be pretty well-understood by Star Wars fans specifically those familiar with Boba Fett or the Mandalorion TV series. Nonetheless, it is a solid primer for those who have picked up the book and are unfamiliar with the concept. The book then goes into a section on creating a bounty hunter (“Becoming a Bounty Hunter”) that shows the benefits of the career for players, and the career path that one must follow is they choose to play a bounty hunter. We then get into the concept of Reputation which is a stat exclusive to bounty hunters. Reputation helps bounty hunter charactes in their pursuit of better jobs through their career, and can be canned through achieving significant milestones, though it can be lost as well. There is a mishap table that can also set them back.
Following this the book discusses multiple ways to operate as a bounty hunter, this includes independent (think of a ronin ala Yojimbo) corporate, or with a guild. The latter of which can help find better jobs and include benefits, but takes a percentage of your payment for each job, this percentage can be based on a 2D6 dice role compared to the guild holdback table or lower with each point of reputation a character has (I would possibly do both personally). The final section that could be considered player facing is detailing contract work, what it is, how to set it up setting the priority of a contract.
Beyond this it definitely falls into more referee oriented material with the next section detailing advice for running a bounty hunter campaign. The focus here has action elements, but being a game of Traveller where combat is DEADL Y (yes, all caps deadly) it focuses more on the investigating elements of a Traveller campaign. The book concludes with a section on equipment, vehicles, ship building/conversion via a “High Guard” style chapter specifically for bounty hunters, safe houses, and bases of operation and a “Scoundrels Gallery” that is exactly what it says it is. This is fun book though not entirely necessary, and easily comes RECOMMENDED.
The next book in this review block is the Small Craft Catalogue. One thing Traveller has going for it is it’s extensive catalogues and build options for players. Basically, Traveller can be as simple or complext as a GM wants it to be. This includes options like the Robot Handbook and Vehicle handbook allowing players to build their own vehicles or robots, High Guard which allows players to customize and build their own space ships from scratch. But then there are also books like the Central Supply Catalogue and this book the Small Craft Catalogue, which gives players premade options for their game (at a cost).
This book like the title says offers a catalogue of small crafts, so what does that mean in regards to Traveller. They are small (as in less than 100 tons) ships that are not jump capable. These can range from small ships boats which can be carried on larger ships to attack fighters for close range space combat. They are particular good in games that take place around a single star system and are easier (and in-game cheaper) to maintain. The Small Craft Catalogue breaks down into sections based on the type of small craft a player might want to use from military ships to commercial crafts to fighters and more. Each small craft in the book is given a layout of the look plus the stats for each ship.
If you’ve played Mongoose Traveller 2E for any amount of time, you are very likely aware of the campaign “The Pirates of Drinax”. This is an epic pulpy space pirate campaign that is so immense and detailed, and yet so good that since it’s original physical release in 2017 (I believe the individual modules were released online before then), it has found a place in the upper echelon of tabletop RPG classics like Call of Cthulhu’s Masks of Nyarlathotep or I6 – Ravenloft.
Pirates of Drinax begins at the floating palace on the planet of Drinax. The discovery of a large ship begins to turn the tide in favor of the Drinax an fallen empire that started fading from greatness centuries before after the King of Drinax tried to implement taxes on the burgeoning Aslan culture in the Trojan Reach, and facing a revolt because of it. Now Drinax only exist as a single nearly uninhabitable planet with a floating palace. Players are granted the ship, which is in a state of disrepair at the beginning of the campaign with limited funds to repair it. They are also given a letter of marquee making everything they do legal in the eyes of Drinax. Of course, Drinax has zero influence so the letter, at least at the start has very little value to the opposing factions. The players must go between being ruthless space pirates to diplomats ready to negotiate at a moment’s notice in order to restore Drinax to its former glory, or if they so choose or adventure through the Trojan Reach with their new ship on a variety of wild adventures.
I specify this, because The Pirates of Drinax is the definition of a “sandbox” campaign. For the most part players can go through the games 10 modules in any order they like, clever GM’s can also insert additional adventures in the Trojan Reach totally independent of the story based on their players actions. Further, Mongoose offers referees who want an even longer in depth campaign such as the Shadows of Sindal. The expansive and sandbox nature of the campaign are assisted with the 2 other books in the set. The first called the Trojan Reach is an in-depth exploration of this sector of the Traveller universe including the Aslan who dominate parts of the sector, and even how to create Aslan Travellers for PCs to use down to a supply catalog specific to the species. We then get detailed explorations of the various subsectors that constitute the Trojan Reach including tables detailing statistics of all the known planets in the subsector and short descriptions of some of the planets there offering GM’s a lot of options in regards to the broad nature of the campaign and various play-styles.
The final book in the set is called Ships of the Reach, and basically the title sells it all. This a catalogue much like the Small Craft Catalogue reviewed above. The first roughly 60 pages are ships regular PC’s might find in the reach, the rest of the book deals with crafts for the Aslan. This includes moderate details to construct ones own Aslan style vessels and a series of pre made Aslan style crafts.
I consider myself a permanent GM, and my preferred style of play is maximum pulp with elements of sandbox play. I enjoy running games from pre-written modules as I don’t have a lot of time to write things from scratch, sometimes to fix plot holes and other stray elements of a campaign, other times to offer greater opportunities to my PC’s. The Pirates of Drinax covers both elements in SPADES. I cannot wait to run this for my players HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!