First Impressions - Abilities Considered Unnatural (Mothership RPG)

Abilities Considered Unnatural is gorgeous, except for that slight grey print at the top right that keeps on making me thing I've dog-eared the cover. 

This is the second Mothership scenario created by the team that wrote "Desert Moon of Karth", the module that convinced me that Mothership offered more than one-shot thrills. It's presented as a 56-page (including covers as all pages are used) staple-bound full colour zine with decent weight & quality paper. Layout and illustration are gorgeously done; it's clean, well edited and has good use of colour. It's compatible with the forthcoming Mothership 1E rules.

The scenario is set on a remote mining colony on the rim, a corporate world owned and dominated by Sharpe Co. Except an uprising occurred against their oppressive control a number of years ago, when a group of miners got religion and brutally took back control using their proton augers against mine security, management and pretty much anyone supporting the old regime.

For proton auger, think lightsaber with a power pack. Sharpe have tried to retake the planet several times using mercenaries, but failed. They have an uneasy control over the surface facilities and close on absolute control over access to the system as they dominate this sector of space.

The characters are offered a big payout to recover the anomaly that the miners found that brought them religion. Sharpe will even cancel any corporate debt. The catch is that it needs doing quickly, as they plan to bombard the mine & colony to destroy all resistance and close down operations in the system. And there's the complication of a schism in the Kaadar order, a faction of whom have kidnapped kids from town as hostages and potential recruits.

The setting is a sandbox which splits into two distinct areas - Sable town itself and the former mine, now Temple, controlled by the Kaadar. The maps are done well - some of them are illustrations (for example the town) and some more traditional. Key characters are described with bios, desires, fears and potential jobs.

There's plenty of opportunity for interaction, making money on the side, being heroes and crossing and double-crossing the various factions. There are opportunities to extend the play beyond the immediate sandbox if the players feel like it, and take the right hooks. As a setting, the scenario could easily be used for other systems such as Traveller. It's dangerous, but it doesn't have the suicide mission feel typical of Alien, some Call of Cthulhu, or other Mothership modules.

Overall, Abilities Considered Unnatural presents a fun sandbox with plenty of opportunities for adventure and interaction. It isn't a rail road, and has plenty of interesting characters to meet. The style is fresh and distinctive, leaving me no hesitation in recommending this module.

PDF available at DriveThruRPG.

31 July 2022