Lone Star:

Solo rules for Mothership® RPG

Parts Per Million

These rules are intended to allow you to play Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG
without a Warden [Game Master].
Parts of these rules are developed from One Page Solo Engine v0.2 by Karl
Hendricks. Those rules are covered by the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
The Crew Emulation uses ideas created by katamoiran under the title of Player
Emulator with Tags. https://exposit.github.io/katarpgs/superlite/playeremulator/
Lone Star is copyright 2020 Parts Per Million and covered by the CC BY-SA 4.0
license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Game Icons by Lorc, under CC BY 3.0 game-icons.net
What is Solo Role-Play?
Most people, when thinking of role-playing games, think of a group of friends
sitting around a table, one playing the role of Game Master [Warden in
Mothership] and the others each playing their character. The game revolves
around a collaborative and interactive story, mediated by the Warden and the
rules of the game.
But that is not everyone’s experience. Many people sit at home, alone and play
with people they have never met using virtual tabletops like Fantasy Grounds,
Astral or Roll20.
Another group post their characters actions and reaction to forums which get
updated daily, or less frequently even.
Each of these media has advantages and disadvantages. The social game
around the table can be hard to arrange to get everyone in the same place at the
same time for hours at a stretch.
For virtual games, you still need to commit several hours at regular intervals to
do the game justice.
Play-by-Post or Play-by-Forum is a more rarified form of the game which works
for some players and not for others.
Sometimes you cannot find a game anywhere, especially if you want to play
something a little less mainstream.
Solo Role-Play is a bit different. In this form of the game, the role of the Warden
is emulated using a few tables. How? The Warden is there to set up the opening
scene, where the game starts and to answer your questions so you understand
what your character can see, hear and do. This book provides simple tables to
answer those questions for you. In addition to these question-answering tables,
there are some simple guidelines to help you run a game to make the most of
what solo has to offer.

IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU

Most RPG sessions are all about compromises. The Warden should be giving
each character a moment in the spotlight, arranging challenges for each role in
the crew and so on. In a solo game, the theme, story and style only have to
please you. Your character is always the star of the scene, and it is your
character’s story.
There is also no loss of fidelity between what the Warden imagined, how they
expressed that vision and how you picture the same scene. In solo play, it all
happens in your imagination. The scenes are perfect, the accents are perfect, as
are all the myriad of other little details.
Solo play is as distinct a form of the hobby as play-by-post or virtual tabletop, it is
different, it will take a bit of getting used to, and it has its strengths and
weaknesses.
Key Ideas
There are a few key ideas that it helps to grasp before diving into solo play.
Behaviour: Each NPC has a base behaviour or personality type. This governs
their actions during your game.
Complication: Something changed that makes the question you just asked no
longer relevant. Often a twist in the plot or unexpected action.
Closed Question: Closed Questions can be answered with simple yes or no
answers, such as has the life support failed?
Doom: Doom is on a par with Stress for characters but applies to your entire
adventure. As Doom increases, your adventures are going to become
increasingly fraught with danger.
First Reaction: When you get an answer to a question, your first reaction is
nearly always the best response. Just trust yourself and go with your first
thought.
Open Question: Open Questions cannot be answered with a simple yes or no
answer, examples would be what is in the locker, or what are they talking about.
Scene: A scene is the basic unit of solo role-play; a solo session may be made
up of one or many scenes.
Subverted: A subverted scene is a scene that has has been changed from what
you initially imagined.
Closed Questions
A closed question is one that is answered yes or no. Is a hatch locked or not?
Are there guards on the gantry? Closed questions are often used to establish
facts about your world.
There are a few considerations to take into account when dealing with closed
questions.
Not everything is equally likely. Guards on a military base are really common,
and Unattended spaceships are not so common. Questions likely to be Yes
answers are rolled with Advantage, questions that are likely to be No are rolled
with disadvantage. If you don’t know how likely something is, use the 50/50
option and just roll the dice.
Three Strikes Rule. There can be a temptation to keep asking questions and try
and drill down to ever greater detail. Don’t do it. Try and refrain from asking more
than three questions on the same subject. Ideally, the first answer should have
been enough to prompt your improvisation into giving you an answer you can
work into your story.
20-second rule. This is similar to the Three Strikes, above. If a logical reason for
the answer you have rolled does not come to you within 20 seconds, just ignore
the roll and go with what does seem logical.
Best for the Game. The questions you ask are supposed to be from the point of
view of the game, not what is best for your character. While it may be helpful if
there are were no security officers around, and if you don’t ask the question there
won’t be, unfortunately, if it is logical that there should or could be, you should
ask the question.
Although closed questions are typically yes-no by nature, there are more than
just straight yes and no answers on the table. Some answers are modified with
and…, but… and because… modifiers.
And… the and… modifier means ‘and more so’. Imagine you wanted to steal a
vehicle, you ask if the vehicle is unlocked and get a ‘Yes,
and…’. You could interpret that as yes it is unlocked and
the keys are in the ignition.
But… the but… modifier tones down the answer, making it not as good or bad for
your character as it could be. Using the same example as above, stealing the
vehicle, a yes, but… to the same question could be mean that yes the vehicle is
unlocked but the power display is flashing “Lo Bat” in red.
Because… the because modifier can be attached to a ‘no’ answer. You will need
to think of a reason why the answer is a no, and this often provides a way for the
character to turn the no into a yes, if that is what they want. Remember a no
doesn’t have to be a bad thing. “Are the security guards giving chase?” is a
classic example of where a no is very much in the characters’ favour. In this
case, a ‘because…’ clause may mean that an officer has shouted at the guards
to keep to their posts.
Complication. A complication is an event that happens in during a scene. If you
roll a double [00,11,55 and so on], a complication happens. Doubles below 50
are events of extreme luck for your character. Doubles above 50 are extremely
unlucky. Using the stealing a vehicle question as an example, asking if the
vehicle is unlocked and you get a yes, and a double could mean that not only is
the vehicle unlocked but looking inside shows it to be an unmarked security
officers vehicle. A bad complication could have had an almost rabid rottweiler
throw itself at the window just as you tried the door, not a vehicle you want to get
in.
Doom. Doom starts at zero and is tracked throughout your game. Every time you
roll a 55, 66, 77, 88 or 99, Doom increases by 1. Doom gets periodically reset.
Roll Answer
00-09 Yes and…
10-39 Yes
40-49 Yes but…
50-59 No because…
60-89 No
90-99 No and…

Likely questions roll twice and take the lowest result.

Unlikely questions roll twice and take the highest result
50/50 roll once.
Open Questions
Open Questions cannot be answered with a simple yes-no. They cover all the
possible questions of who, what where, when and how.
0. Sight
Imagination, sight, eyesight, sightedness, binocular vision, experience, view,
near vision, distance vision, visual system, prevision, visual, night vision,
imaginativeness, perspective, visual sensation, visual sense, visual modality,
creativity, sense, concept, image, peripheral vision, understanding, spirit,
approach, commitment, transformation, desire, legacy, wisdom, realization, belief
1. Touch
Feel, contact, refer, touch on, stroke, adjoin, hit, finger, hint, tinge, relate, meet,
concern, pertain, bear on, come to, affect, impact, rub, skin, have to do with,
somatosense, colour, kiss, border, color, striking, strike, palpate, way,
adeptness, palpation .common touch, tactile property, reach, trace, tint, jot,
allude, pinch, spot, somesthesia, feeling, signature, stir, disturb, match, speck
2. Taste
Savor, savour, smack, flavor, sour, sweetness, pungency, tongue, taste bud,
discernment, sugar, sweet, sensation, sourness, flavour, relish, gustation, sense,
bitter, experience, bitterness, saltiness, sample, coffee, texture, olfaction,
preference, appreciation, lemon, umami, smell, aroma, taste receptor, gustducin,
spice, cheese, savory, acid, human, salt, mouthful, degust, tasting, tasteless
3. Hearing
Listen, ear, discover, see, catch, overhear, pick up, find, eardrum, learn, rehear,
sound, auditory system, try, pinna, mishear, get wind, get a line, take heed, get
word, find out, perceive, get, tell, earplug, ask, speak, know, talk, come,
remember, read, say, imagine, sounded, cry, understand, happen, ignore, watch,
cochlea, deafen, temporal lobe, audiometer, brainstem, ultrasound, vibration
4. Scent
Smell, perfume, odor, odour, fragrance, aroma, incense, odorize, olfactometer,
nose, sense, odorless, musk, bouquet, fragrant, taste, wind, odorous, chemical
compound, body odor, stench, olfactory, stink up, stink, olfactory perception,
redolence, sniff, smells, sweetness, odourless, cologne, pungent, flavor,
patchouli, ammonia, organic compound, whiff, nasal cavity, sensation, mist
5. Emotion
Anger, anxiety, fear, feeling, sadness, disgust, sympathy, awe, affection,
feelings, joy, love, empathy, happiness, pleasure, frustration, mood, shame,
contempt, psychology, medicine, affective , neuroscience, surprise, creativity,
boredom, hatred, emotional, passions, excitement, joyousness, curiosity,
passion, sense, sorrow, hunger, pain, compassion, confusion, indignation
6. Movement
Change, lurch, motion, move, sitting, approach, inclination, inversion,
displacement, approaching, travel, scherzo, wiggle, wave, speed, squirm, effort,
crusade, drive, cause, front, campaign, reciprocation, migration, wriggle, waver,
flit, sonata, body language, bowel movement, apparent movement, flow,
agitation, freedom, revolution, struggle, organization, activism, faction
7. Time
Clock, second, past, future, day, minute, event, dimension, sequence, hour,
measurement, present, set, moment, period, while, existence, duration, when,
life, schedule, days, calendar, universe, one, place, way, after, break, caesium,
year, clip, space, meter, sentence, correct, adjust, sun, clock time, fourth
dimension, prison term, general relativity, period of time, time period, eternity
8. Solid
Unmoving, fixed, nonmoving, static, unpowered, horizontal, motorized, magnetic,
configuration, grid, loading, propeller, wheel, immobile, synchronous, speeds,
motionless, gauge, vertical, beam, distances, gear, bicycle, vehicle, immobilized,
geostationary, throttle, cylinders, tandem, velocity, axles, engine, propellers,
wheels, powered, speed, transmission, distance, configurations, mobile, inert
9. Joy
Emotion, happiness, delight, joyousness, pleasure, joyfulness, rejoice, gladden,
joyful, elation, excitement, thrill, jubilation, gladness, glee, rejoicing, enthusiasm,
enjoyment, wonderful, cheer, euphoria, fun, bliss, satisfaction, celebration, glory,
gusto, cheerfulness, lovely, happy, relish, gratifying, revelry, cheerful, pleasant,
glad, pleasing, dearest, excited, precious, nice, delighted, cometh, merry, music
The fact generator can be used in one of two ways. The headings represent
themes, sight, touch, taste, sound, scent, thoughts, movement, time, stasis and
joy. These are followed by word association lists.
If your character picks up a portion of food, you would take the first unused word
in the taste group
If, for example, your character was eavesdropping on a comms link and you
wanted to know the gist of the conversation you would roll 2d10, the each die
would be a group and then take the first available word, to get two words. Rolling
a 3, 1, comes up with Listen + Feel. On their own, these words mean nothing.
When you apply the context of your adventure so far, you can add in additional
information and make sense of what that word pair means to you.
Managing Your Crew
I suggest you create a crew to accompany you on your adventures. I am not
suggesting you try and role-play an entire party. Your crew is an important part of
Mothership. If someone panics, that can ripple through your entire crew.
Create your crew using the standard character creation rules.
Once you have them, create a behaviour and personality for them using the
following table. Roll 5d10 (1 die per column)

PERSONALITY TABLES
Roll Personality Comes across Can be… A bit… Sometimes…
as...
0 Blunt/No verbal Filter/honest Chatty Demanding Callous Smart
1 Inept/blames others/shirker Needy Sensible Depressed Creative
2 Living off past glories/ Ruthless Attentive Daredevil Blunt
3 Ignoble/cowardly/dishonest Greedy Romantic Democratic Casual
4 Weak-willed/self-serving Dramatic Precise Arrogant Timid
5 Problem Solver/Fixer Curious Dedicated Careless Rigid
6 Skilled/dedicated to the task Cheerful Flighty Competitive Methodical
and team
7 Noble/honourable Bully Determined Conventional Leader
8 Driven/self motivated/ go- Indecisive Assertive Peacemaker Loner
getter
9 Blunt/No verbal Filter/Self Flamboyant Argumentative Forgetful Pessimistic
Serving
Example: if my first roll were 7 8 2 0 5 my crewmate would be: Noble (7) but
indecisive, attentive, a bit callous and sometimes rigid in his thinking
This list gives me enough to play this NPC and keep them behaving with a level
of continuity from session to session.
Record these personality traits on their character sheets but make sure you
include the number for their personality, eg. Noble (7) or Inept (1).
At the top of a scene, I will roll 1d10 for each crewmate.
Roll Behaviour
0 The character acts out of character negatively.
1 The character behaves negatively.
2 Something from the character’s backstory negatively influences their action.
3 The character indulges or expresses a vice or ignoble facet of their character.
4 The character takes the easiest and safest possible option for them.
5 The character acts following their current desire or to preserve their well-being.
6 The character uses an aspect they’re comfortable with (a skill, profession, tactic, or
similar).
7 The character expresses a noble facet of their character.
8 Draw a new Behaviour. Play any behaviour; interpret it positively as the character’s
action.
9 The character acts out of character positively.
If the number you have rolled is less than their personality number, increase your
roll by one.
If the roll is greater than their personality number, decrease your roll by one.
This modifier means that crewmembers will tend to behave true to the
personality you rolled for them, while also having the flexibility to think for
themselves.
Example: so my crewmate, which is naturally Noble (7), at the start of the next
scene, gets a behaviour roll and rolls five. This roll is below his regular seven, so
I move it up to a six, and the crew member tries to stay in their comfort zone.
These personality and behavioural rolls make your crew members independent
of what you may want them to do.
Scenes
One of the Wardens tasks, normally, is to create the opening scene from which
your adventure evolves. A Warden may have planned a few set play scenes,
such as discovering the alien bodies, the encounter with hostile scavengers and
the final battle. Scenes in solo play are more important. If you think of a regular
game session, every time the Warden skips a block of time, one scene ended,
and another started. Think of it as if a movie director had shouted “Cut!”
everyone grabbed a coffee and then setting up the new scene before the snap of
the clapper board and “Action!”
You will instinctively decide when your scenes start and end. If you walked from
one end of your ship to the other and you role-played, imagined, the entire
journey, that is one continuous scene. If you made the same journey but jumped
from deciding to head to the bridge to your arrival, that was two scenes. One
ended when you hit the door open control, and the other started as you stepped
on to the bridge.

SCENE SET UP
Scenes are important for a couple of reasons in solo play. Where a Warden
would have game or campaign notes, you will keep a few lists. One of those lists
will be a scene list. This list will serve as a storyboard of your adventures. It will
help you keep the facts straight when returning to the same location; it remains
consistent.
Scenes are not created in advance, as a Warden would, they are created as
needed. In traditional games scenes are often associated with railroaded play,
solo play is centred on sandbox play where anything can happen.

BLOCKCHAIN
At the start of a new scene, you will roll 6d10 and record the results. These serve
three purposes. Write down the six numbers as single 0-9 digits, and then write
them down as 00-99 results using adjacent pairs.
Example: 2 0 1 3 3 9 will also be written as 20, 01, 13, 33, 39. I m going to call
this run of numbers the Blockchain because it sounds cool, it is easier to use
than “long list of numbers”.
The Blockchain will include both sets of single-digit and double-digit numbers.
Unused numbers from previous scenes are left in the Blockchain, and the new
numbers added. Because Mothership is designed to be played with minimal dice
rolling, your Blockchain may grow faster than you use it.
When the solo rules call for a dice roll, you will take numbers from your
Blockchain, rather than physically rolling dice.
If your Blockchain runs out of numbers, you will roll another set of 6d10 and add
them to the end of your Blockchain.

STARTING A SCENE
At the top of a scene, you are going to make a few rolls.

Blockchain
Roll 6d10 and add these numbers to your Blockchain as both 0-9 and d100 rolls.

Doom
Take the next d10 roll from your Blockchain. If it is below your current Doom, the
scene has been subverted (see below).

Facts
Create two facts. Take the next four d10 rolls and generate two facts. Record
these facts in your game notes.

Subverted Scenes
A subverted scene is not how or what you expected. The scene becomes a plot
twist. Plot twists can use one or both facts (above) as their inspiration. You
should also consider the story so far, and the type of adventure you want to
have. If you cannot think of anything instantly, then ignore this plot twist but
increase your Doom by one, so making another subverted scene more likely in
future.
Subverted scenes are good for introducing new NPCs, reintroducing NPCs you
thought were dead, creating a crisis when things were going so well and
generally throwing a spanner in the works.

Crew Behaviour
For each member of the crew present, roll their behaviour for this scene.

PLAYING A SCENE
You solo play a scene by imaging your character and any crew in that location.
You imagine your characters actions and conversations. At any point where you
don’t know enough about your scene, that is when you would resort to either the
Facts you generated for inspiration or to an open or closed question.
Where Mothership character skill tests are called for, you use the genuine skill.
You do not use a closed question to see if you fixed a section of hull or can hack
a security system. Use Mothership for Mothership and the question tools for just
the parts that the Warden would create or describe.
The scene continues until you recognize a natural end, or a ‘fade to black’
moment, such as skipping a block of time.

RECORDING SCENES
It is useful to keep a list of your scenes. A record sheet is provided below. The
scene list gives you a chronological order of your stories scenes but also who
was present and where it took place.

Location
The location can be a physical location or a place in the story. You can be
specific such as Johan’s Quarters or broad such as Planet Fall.

Action
The action describes very briefly what happened. This is just a reminder as to
what happened in the scene. It can double up as a memory aid if you read the
list through before you start to play. It is also useful for remembering where and
when you first met NPCs or whether it is safe to go back to that bar where you
met those drunken marines…

NPCs
Who took part in the scene? This record helps you to remember where you met
people but also who is deserving of experience should you survive the night.

Entrance/Exit
How did the scene start and how did it end. Logically these entries should line up
from scene to scene. Solo has some special qualities that are hard to do in
regular games. You will read about those below, but they make use of entrance
and exit points.

Doom
This records the current Doom value during that scene. It is normal for the Doom
to increase by one or two points per scene when critical rolls are made.
 SCENES LIST

Game:
Location Action NPCs Entrance/Exit

Doom:

Doom:

Doom:

Doom:

Doom:

Doom:

Doom:
NPCs
This chapter deals with all those other NPCs, not your crew. You will inevitably
meet other NPCs during your game. Stopping your game to roll up a full NPC
every time you talk to someone is tiresome and not a good use of your gaming
time.
Instead, I have provided an NPC record sheet.
When you create an NPC, just create a name, and if you need one, roll a
personality for them. As they display skills, for example, if you bribe an engineer
to make some illegal mods to your ship, list the skills they use and roll just
enough to set their skill level. You may end up with just one or two stats, a
couple of saves and a single skill.
You may want to go back and complete the character creation for the NPC if you
think they will be a recurring part in your story, or the partial outline may be
sufficient. Either way, this short form will keep your game moving faster than
stopping to make complete NPCs.
The NPC record sheet records Name, Location, Class/Saves and Skills/Loadout

Location
Where did you meet this NPC? It could be a physical location, a time frame or a
scene.

Class/Saves
If they have a class, record it, if you have settled on any saves note them here.

Skills/loadout
You can build these piecemeal as you learn more about the NPC. Having a
record helps you to maintain continuity between sessions and games.
 NPC LIST

Game:
Name Location Class/Saves Skills/Loadout
Plots
At the start of your very first solo session, you may or may not have an idea of
where your story is going. It helps if you have an idea of the sort of game you
would like to play.
Page 24 of the Mothership RG Players Survival Guide has Mercenary
Motivations as a random table. This table is the perfect kickstart to your solo
game, give yourself a random motivation if you need one, or why stop at one?
Roll a couple and see if you can rationalize them.

SPONTANEOUS PLOTS
You will find yourself creating spontaneous plots out of thin air. In my game, I
wanted to go to the bridge, but a subverted scene created a stowaway that had
locked me out of the bridge. Why was the stowaway there? What were they
running from or to something?
In a different game, I asked the rules if someone was pleased to see me. I had
been there several times before and helped them in previous adventures. The
result was a No, which I didn’t expect. A follow up open question suggested that
they were in trouble. All of a sudden, I had a possible side quest or subplot.
Any unexpected question subverted scene or complication can create a loose
thread or possible side plot. Did an enemy who you thought was dead just walk
into the mess hall? How did they survive? Is it them or a clone or android
double?
I typically have five to seven loose ends in my games at once. At the beginning
or end of a solo session, I look at my list of Plots and try and connect several into
one more complicated or advanced plot. Were two mercenaries trying to kill you?
Then there is probably one person with a grudge, or there could be a bounty on
your head. Once you have a few more established plots, they will naturally
suggest answers to unexpected answers, complications and scenes.
This is how the sandbox universe is created. You didn’t start with a planned
overarching story but combining your own vision of randomly prompted events
forges them into a storyline for your adventure. Before long, it is only natural for
bad things to be caused by the forces you are working against.
Reviewing your plot list is a simple piece of housekeeping that you should do
before a solo session. It refreshes in your mind the outstanding storylines and
helps your improvisation by giving your suggestions for cause and effect.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE?

The plot list operates on a Who, What, Where and connections basis.

Who
Who is involved in this plot? Most plots have some kind of agent that acts as the
introducer. It could be a friendly face, but with a big problem, it could be a bounty
hunter with your name on a warrant. Note down the significant NPC(s) for this
plot.

What
What are the important facts as you know them? You may be completely wrong,
but from your characters point of view what is happening?

Where
This can relate to a scene, a time or a place, if it is a corrupt mining foreman on a
particular outpost the scope of the plot more geographical. If it relates to an
interplanetary arrest warrant, it could come up again and again.

Connections.
When you are trying to link individual events, you can note the connections here.
It makes reviewing your list much easier if you can see the connections as a
glance.
 PLOT LIST

Game:
Who? What? Where? Connections?
Tracking Progress
Sometimes you will end up with lots of things to track while you are playing. The
game world is not static just beyond the scene you can see and hear. To make
tracking events easier, I suggest using progress clocks.
A progress clock is an idea from Powered by the Apocalypse games. They are
wonderfully simple and make it very easy to track all sorts of events.
A progress clock is a simple circle that you divide into segments. Each clock has
an event attached to it. When certain triggers are met, you fill in one segment of
the clock. When all the segments are filled, the clock is said to have run down,
and the event happens.
How many segments depends on the event and how likely you think the event is
to happen.
Some triggers will be blocks of time, and others will be more arbitrary.

EVENT-DRIVEN CLOCKS
An event-driven clock is one that online counts down when certain events
happen. Imagine your character is sneaking around an alien spaceship. Every
time you fail to be quiet (Athletics or Military Training) you tick the clock one
segment, every time you do something that could be noticed, such as forcing a
hatch, hiding a body in a locker, you tick down the clock. When the clock is run
down, one of the alien security crew has discovered something and raises the
alarm.
When you create the clock, you can decide how alert these aliens are. Alert
aliens will need fewer segments on their clock as they are more likely to spot
something out of the normal. Peaceful and relaxed aliens will have more
segments and are less likely to every spot your intrusion.

TIME-DRIVEN CLOCKS
Some events are based upon time. If you only have 14hrs to shutdown your
reactor core, you may play out a lot of scenes in that time, and it could take you
many days in real-time. A clock that you tick down every time you think an hour
will have passed will keep track of your impending doom.
PLOT CLOCKS
You can create a clock for a plot if you can identify either a time frame or events,
that will mark its progress. You also need an idea of what the counting down of
the clock will mean.
For example, if the plot is that the villain is bombarding a mining colony, hoping
for it to surrender. You decide that the colony will withstand the bombardment for
four days. Your clock is a circle cut in quarters. Each day, you tick the clock
down. If you can break the siege before the four days are up, then the colony
doesn’t fall. If you take five days to return with a relief force, you will find the
colony a radioactive crater.
Some clocks will never tick down. You could sneak in and out without ever
alerting the aliens. With others, they are inevitable, and it is more a question of
where you got to before the ship jumps, the missiles launch or the police arrive.
Clocks are purely visual and extremely easy to maintain. Before your game, you
check what clocks are running and what the criteria and events are—anything
irrelevant you can discard.
Published Adventures
There is an increasing number of published adventures for Mothership, and you
do not want to miss out. Part of the common culture around role-playing is having
played, and possibly died during the same adventures as other people, of having
reached different solutions to common problems.
Playing published adventures solo is a very different style of play to when they
are run by a GM. Published adventures can challenge your role-playing skills.
The process is quite simple but does require preparing the adventure for solo
play.
1. Read the Adventure. You have to have a working knowledge of the adventure.
I am afraid that this does mean that you will know the twist in the tail, or shock
ending if there is one.
2. Identify the most important scenes, the things that absolutely must happen for
the adventure to work.
3. Map out the adventure as a simple flow diagram of scenes. The adventure is
not supposed to be a railroad from scene to scene, but if you know those
essential scenes, you can always reroute your adventure to make sure you
end up in the right place. Most published adventures are flexible enough that
they contain conditional branches in case the characters go off in the wrong
direction. The entry and exit points on the Scenes List are helpful here.
4. Now you know what is suppose to happen, who the NPCs are (from your read
through), the scenes from plot hook to the showdown, and what you
absolutely must do. You can now role-play the adventure.
5. Scaling encounters. You need to make subjective decisions as to when you
can scale down an encounter. You can scale by reducing the number of foes
you encounter or by reducing their level. The former may be easier to do, as
scaling the level may mean recreating many NPCs.
6. Mothership is meant to be hard to survive. Do not tone encounters down too
much, or you will lose some of the inherent danger of being alone in space.
7. Do not ask questions that will break the adventure, it may sound obvious, but
when you need a complication, you have to be sympathetic to the adventure
you are playing, the same is true for subverted scenes.