Been doing research for SPILT MILK, the phonebook mystery adventure, which means watching film noir movies on internet archive and playing Hotel Dusk on my old DS
Noir isn’t the only aesthetic at play in Odai 57, but the more I lean into it the more I find it fits Mothership specifically. The black and white is apropos but the connections run deeper
1. The Solve. Most apparently, MoSh is a mystery game already. I’ve already done a “solve” focused module for TKG, Piece By Piece, which has an X-Files vibe. The survive and save are still there, but are reliant on players working through the immediate questions first, and are easier when equipped with answers from the central mystery. There are still people to die for and things to kill you in the phonebook too, but they’re fewer and further between. No aliens, for one thing. But none of this is outside a Mothership module’s jurisdiction
2. The Panic. I rarely put too much focus on making things horrific when I’m writing for Mothership, I find it comes naturally. But it is a horror game with that Stress/Panic core and flimsy characters made of nasty wounds and repressed trauma. I don’t think any of this is far removed from noir - people die, sometimes the lead, always in quick, dramatic bursts after long stretches of simmering tension. There are guns everywhere but few shots are fired and fewer make contact, like a survival game you can count the bullets. Our heroes are troubled, desperate and weak. It’s only their quick thinking and a little luck keeping them out of the frying pan, which sounds pretty OSR to me.
3. The Rest. All that’s left is vibes tbh. Closing in on aesthetic specificity is part of the joy of each new MoSh module. Every corner of the outer rim has its own corporate overlords and tech levels, each author has their own sci fi vision. If I want my landline phone network in focus, I can say that the station’s extensive radiation shielding renders wireless comms useless. If I want rain-soaked streets, I can make the station’s pipes drip with leaks and submarine-style condensation. Mothership is malleable enough to get us the rest of the way there without fuss
I think a lot of very good modules have already been made within Mothership’s existing vibes wheelhouse. I’m excited to make something a little different, even if it turns out the heart is still very much the same
