Critical Hit Tables for Mothership

November 9, 2018 horror mothership scifi rpgs playtesting tables

A lot has been going on in the mothership world recently. First off, we got two major mentions: one was a small mention by Matt Colville on his YouTube channel, the other was an in depth and glowing review by Ben Milton of Questing Beast.

Our discord channel has been hopping recently, especially with our new #distress-signals channel where you can post a 1-2 sentence adventure seed for other people to use. No questions, no discussion, just the adventure seed.

There are people running games at U-Conn this weekend, and I’ll be at BGGCon and Pax Unplugged and might put together a game if there’s some interest.

Additionally, now that the game is out there to a wider audience (oh you can buy print copies from Exalted Funeral btw) we are finally getting time to do more playtesting. A couple things that are on my list:

• d100 Panic table
• A revision of combat: getting rid of Armor saves and moving to armor that is just damage reduction, reducing the number of starting Hit Points, and adding this siqq critical table below.
• Carousing and XP: Making it so that Stress can only be reduced by Carousing and you get XP based on the amount of Stress you reduce. (Edit: Done)
• Random advancement tables per class: Right now leveling isn’t as fun as it could be. We’re going to work on that.
• Background tables per class: What does “marine” mean? That kind of thing. Fiona’s already gotten started with the excellent android origins tables which she put together. You should check them out.

For now…

Critical Hit Tables

This borrows heavily from every major critical hit table I could find and is here more for a proof of concept. Roll on this table whenever an enemy lands a critical hit on a PC. You could use them for PC crits too, but I think that’s probably more boring that extra damage or doing something unique with their weapon, etc. This is meant to contribute more to the death spiral inherent in Mothership.

Also, if you want to do it the way we’re doing it: Health now starts out equal to your Strength or Body Save, whichever is higher. And if you wanna be REALLY hardcore, get rid of the armor save and do damage reduction of 1 point for light armor (like vaccsuits), 3 points for medium armor (standard battle dress), and 5 points for heavy armor (like advanced battle dress). Also you could have a personal shield generator (like the one’s in Dune) which does damage reduction of 1d10 but only has 1d10 charges (needs batteries).

I’d heal non-permanent stat damage the way you heal regular damage but you can’t heal regular damage in the same day that you heal stat damage, you gotta pick one or the other. Permanent stat damage can’t be fixed without cybernetics (or like retiring and seeing a physical therapist).

The android column gives an * to any special entries. Usually this means the Android still takes the cosmetic damage (and any extra associated damage) but is not affected in the way an android wouldn’t be. For example, Androids are immune from bleeding out (they don’t suffer damage from blood loss). So like losing a limb, while it hurts their capabilities, doesn’t spell out instant death for them like it does for humans. So basically the * means “gives this special attention if you’re dealing with an android.”

Androids are already super powerful because they don’t need to breathe, eat, etc. So we’ll find a way to balance them out (maybe an awful fucking panic table) so I left a lot of options on there (like Lung Punctured) that you could arguably say wouldn’t affect an android, but I decided to let it slide.

Roll	Location	Effect	Damage	Android
0	L. Leg	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	N/A
1	R. Leg	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	N/A
2	L. Arm	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	N/A
3	R. Arm	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	N/A
4	Body	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	1 pt.
5	Body	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	1 pt.
6	Body	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	1 pt.
7	Body	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	1 pt.
8	Body	Flesh wound. Minor scar.	1 pt.
9	Head	Forehead cut. Blood in eyes. Can’t see until you take a round to wipe the blood.	1 pt.
10	L. Leg	Tripped. Fall down.	1 pt.
11	R. Leg	Tripped. Fall down.	1 pt.
12	L. Arm	Weapon knocked out of hand.	N/A
13	R. Arm	Weapon knocked out of hand.	N/A
14	Body	Body save or knocked down.	N/A
15	Body	Body save or knocked down.	N/A
16	Body	Body save or knocked down.	N/A
17	Body	Body save or knocked down.	N/A
18	Body	Body save or knocked down.	N/A
19	Head	Skullcracked. Disadvantage on combat 1d10 rounds.	1d5
20	L. Leg	Sprained ankle.	1d5
21	R. Leg	Sprained ankle.	1d5
22	L. Arm	Jammed up hand.	1 pt.
23	R. Arm	Jammed up hand.	1 pt.
24	Body	Staggered. Disadvantage on your next attack.	N/A
25	Body	Staggered. Disadvantage on your next attack.	N/A
26	Body	Staggered. Disadvantage on your next attack.	N/A
27	Body	Staggered. Disadvantage on your next attack.	N/A
28	Body	Staggered. Disadvantage on your next attack.	N/A
29	Head	Face permanently disfigured.	1 pt.
30	L. Leg	Kneecap blown. -1d10 Speed.	1d10
31	R. Leg	Deep wound, permanent limp. -20 Speed.	1d10
32	L. Arm	Pulled muscle.	1d5
33	R. Arm	Pulled muscle.	1d5
34	Body	Liver damaged. 1d10 damage per day	1d10
35	Body	Hit in the crotch, if relevant, Body save or double over.	1d5
36	Body	Solar Plexus hit. Stunned 1 round.	1d5
37	Body	Winded. Speed halved until you take a round to catch your breath.	N/A
38	Body	Winded. Speed halved until you take a round to catch your breath.	N/A
39	Head	Seeing double. Half Combat score until end of encounter.	1d5
40	L. Leg	1d5 broken toes.	1 pt. per toe.
41	R. Leg	1d5 broken toes.	1 pt. per toe.
42	L. Arm	1d5 broken fingers.	1 pt. per finger.
43	R. Arm	1d5 broken fingers.	1 pt. per finger.
44	Body	Kidney punch.	1d10
45	Body	Shoulder dislocated. 1d5 damage when snapped back in.	2d10
46	Body	Gut punch. Body save or void bowels.	1d10
47	Body	Induced nausea. Body save or vomit.	1d10
48	Body	Hips punctured. -3d10 Speed.	2d10
49	Head	1d10 teeth knocked out. Or jaw unhined.	1 pt. per tooth
50	L. Leg	Left foot broken.	1d10
51	R. Leg	Right foot broken.	1d10
52	L. Arm	Broken arm.	1d10
53	R. Arm	Broken arm.	1d10
54	Body	Abdomen cut deeply. 1d10 damage per hour until stitched up.	1d5
55	Body	Internal bleeding. 1d10 damage per round for 1d10 rounds.	1d10
56	Body	Collarbone broken. -3d10 Strength.	1d10
57	Body	1d5 Ribs broken. -1d10 Speed and Strength.	2 pt. per rib.
58	Body	1d5 Ribs broken. -1d10 Speed and Strength.	2 pt. per rib.
59	Head	Major skull fracture, unconscious. Roll on unconsciousness table.	1d10
60	L. Leg	1d5 toes severed or mangled. -2d10 Speed.	1 pt. per toe.
61	R. Leg	1d5 toes severed or mangled. -2d10 Speed.	1 pt. per toe.
62	L. Arm	1d5 fingers severed.	1 pt. per finger.
63	R. Arm	1d5 fingers severed.	1 pt. per finger.
64	Body	Sternum cracked. Immense pain.	2d10
65	Body	System shock. Body save halved permanently.	3d10
66	Body	Belly pummelled. Body save or fall down.	2d10
67	Body	Overload. Body save to stay conscious.	1d5
68	Body	Shoulder dislocated. -1d10 Combat and Strength	1d10
69	Head	Throat destroyed. Voice gone. Bleeding out.	1d10
70	L. Leg	Left foot severed or mangled. Speed halved.	2d10
71	R. Leg	Right foot severed or mangled. Speed halved.	2d10
72	L. Arm	Left hand severed or mangled.	2d10
73	R. Arm	Right hand severed or mangled.	2d10
74	Body	Kidneys impaled. Bleeding out. 1 damage per round for 2d10 rounds.	1d10	*
75	Body	Abodomen eviscerated.	3d10
76	Body	Breast/Pectoral muscles shredded or torn off.	1d10
77	Body	Sternum cracked. Combat halved.	2d10
78	Body	Vertebrae cracked. Fall down, paralyzed for 1d10 rounds.	2d10
79	Head	Eyes gouged out. Permanently blinded.	2d10
80	L. Leg	Femoral artery cut. Bleeding out.	1d10	*
81	R. Leg	Femoral artery cut. Bleeding out.	1d10	*
82	L. Arm	Brachial artery cut. Bleeding out.	1d10	*
83	R. Arm	Brachial artery cut. Bleeding out.	1d10	*
84	Body	Internal bleeding. 3d10 damage in 1d10 hours. Bleeding out.	1 pt.	*
85	Body	Crotch permanently mangled. Bleeding out.	2d10	*
86	Body	Gut punctured. Bleeding out.	2d10	*
87	Body	Lung punctured. 1d10 damage per round until healed.	1d10 per round.
88	Body	Impaled straight through. Bleeding out and lower body paralyzation until healed.	2d10	*
89	Head	Nothing apparent. Dizziness. Shortness of breath. Brain hemmorage in 1d10 days. Body save or death.	1d10
90	L. Leg	L. Leg severed (1-5 below the kneecap, 6-10 above the kneecap). Speed 0. Death in 1d10 minutes.	3d10	*
91	R. Leg	R. Leg severed (1-5 below the kneecap, 6-10 above the kneecap). Speed 0. Death in 1d10 minutes.	3d10	*
92	L. Arm	L. Arm severed (1-5 below the elbow, 6-10 above the elbow). Death in 1d10 minutes.	3d10	*
93	R. Arm	R. Arm severed (1-5 below the elbow, 6-10 above the elbow). Death in 1d10 minutes.	3d10	*
94	Body	Stomach explodes, spreading acid throughout your organs. Death in 1d10 minutes.	2d10	*
95	Body	Body split in two, instant death.	1d100
96	Body	Guts spooled out in large ropes. Death in 1d10 minutes.	1d100	*
97	Body	Heart pierced. Instant death.	1d100
98	Body	Spinal column shattered, permanently paralyzed.	1d100
99	Head	Entire head pulped and splattered over wide area. Irrevocable death.	1d100

Note: This post has been updated here with some better results and formatting.

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