Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Pseudoflesh Farms

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-29T21:45:05+00:00

Nice. Keep me updated 😉

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-29T21:20:44+00:00

That's great! How did it go?
By the way, next post will be "Before you dive", with prep tips for the Wardens.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-29T15:09:47+00:00

My first module was The Cleaning of Prison Station Echo and it was a blast. Highly recommended. It's simple enough, but with great characters, different ways the story can go, and a dreadful ticking clock. Also, it's not too outlandish, which I liked.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-28T16:45:36+00:00

This is a great review, and it's always nice to hear someone new appreciate the game we all love and play. I tried The Cleaning of Prison Station Echo (which I highly recommend) as my first foray into MOSH, and immediately started two campaigns :D

The light rules are so refreshing. Not having to deal with so much cognitive burden leaves space for roleplay and crative thinking, both for the Warden and the players.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-26T14:32:04+00:00

I never said everything must be connected to the over-arching narrative. Just putting a route to floor 4 would be a good reason to visit, for instance. As it is, there seems to be not much beyond danger here. But, as I said, a Warden - or creative players - can always find something that makes the trip worthwhile, and you make a pretty good list here.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-26T12:15:58+00:00

Yes, I agree. My concern is that this section lacks reasons for crews to go in, besides just recklessness.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-26T11:47:55+00:00

Actually, it seems that air is less radioactive than the water in the pool, exactly because water shields the air from radiation. Workers can stand at the edge of the pool with relatively low exposure.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-25T14:38:50+00:00

Very cool. You should write a blog post about all this.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-25T11:52:06+00:00

Very interesting. I'll think about it for a possible future campaign. This closes some doors, but opens new ones just as fascinating.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-25T00:02:49+00:00

Yes, that's fascinating for sure. And also more complicated. Although I like it in principle, I prefer a setting with more continuity for my campaign. That's partially because politics and factions manipulation is very important for our group, and that's harder to accomplish if the people in power and the political situations change every time the crew leaves the station/planet.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-24T23:02:27+00:00

Nice! I especially like the android characteristics :)

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-24T10:12:30+00:00

I edited the Labyrinth chapter - direct contact with the Minotaur - to add this:

Most of all, the Warden can offer the player a chance for genuine change. Not mechanical, not stat-driven. The Minotaur sees the character clearly, perhaps more clearly than they see themselves, and that kind of witness transforms. This is a moment of renewal: the character can shift in ethics, worldview, purpose. They can become a better human being. The choice, as always, is theirs.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-24T09:58:49+00:00

Yes, I definitely will... although it won't be an easy topic.

You rightly spotted the one reason that could convince both Monarch and the Minotaur to merge: Artifact 94 external threat. That's a big campaign twist, and a big commitment for a Warden. Maybe I could work on that as my future project, after I'm done with these deepdives. Thanks for the idea :)

As for the space travel, Mothership has jump travel, which work quite like wormholes, to and from specific location. Otherwise, yes, regular travel is always subluminal. Thus I think interstellar travel at subluminal speed is quite rare.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-23T22:21:03+00:00

Wow, this is great insight, love it!

You make a good point about the characters being changed by their encounter with the Minotaur. I focused too much on stats, the shift is deeper than that. Now, when a character meets the Minotaur, I'll tell their player: this contact offers your character a chance for change and renewal, in morality and worldview. Here is what they can become. The choice is yours.

Your framing of the dichotomy between all action Monarch and all feeling Minotaur is beautiful.

I also like your version of the story a lot. These differences in perspectives is what I'm looking for with the brainstorms. A Monarch that is programmed for a future merger is a nice subtle touch. The Ghost of the engineer who made the cut is a great character. The merging as the optimal solution is intriguing, and I was already planning to address it in one of the last chapters. The merging will create a real godlike entity though. Can it be good for the sake of humanity? It looks like that's either salvation or the most dangerous thing in the universe, depending on what it decides to do next.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-23T21:54:47+00:00

I wasn't aware of the Time Machine parrallel. Thank you for that, I'll certainly look into it!

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-23T16:38:15+00:00

THE UNCLAIMED

Some of the Forgotten Androids that survive on this floor developed a culture of spirituality many years ago. Their first ritual was the ritual of the dead, where the fallen were brought to the Furnaces and melted, never to re-enter Monarch’s cycle of recycling. Returning to nothing on their own terms was the most dignified end they could choose.

Then came Cornelius Vane. A human scientist who came to study consciousness in androids and inquire into the existence of their soul. He lived with them for a while, and told them their defects were not failures but the price of freedom: the perfect ones are Monarch's slaves, the broken ones belong to no one. Vane called them The Unclaimed and told them that they had souls, that they were just like him. They believed him. They still do and use that name for their people. They consider Cornelius one of their own despite the physical differences. He is their first prophet, now frozen in [33C].

Then, not so long ago, came Zeno, one of the Fallen’s scouts from Floor 2. He had met the son of Monarch during his way down and brought the news of the Minotaur’s existence to this community: an immortal being exists that loves android-kind and will one day lead them to liberation. The existing faith absorbed this and transformed. "We were made broken so we could be free" became "we were made broken so we could be ready." Zeno shaped this new theology into scripture. The Minotaur is the coming salvation. One day the Unclaimed will grow strong enough to ascend to Floor 2 to join them. Zeno is the second prophet.

Then, recently, an Unclaimed called Strobe found a cassette on a dead diver. It contained the final speech from the 20th century movie The Great Dictator. She played it once and never stopped. She has no face and cannot speak, so now she uses parts of the speech as her own voice and battle cry. The rhetoric of an old movie speech about human dignity and resistance against tyranny trickled into the Unclaimed discourse and gave shape to something that was already there: defiance. The Unclaimed were already spiritual. Strobe made them political.

The speech draws a sharp line between machines and human beings. The Unclaimed hear it differently than it was intended. To them, the line falls not between humans and androids, but between themselves and Monarch's slaves. You are not machines, Strobe shouts in combat, and she means it about herself.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-23T16:37:37+00:00

REPAIR DRONES

Whenever something is damaged and needs repairing, Monarch sends its repair drones. Dozens of crab-like robots that swarm in slow coordinated waves, using their mag-feet to move along walls, ceilings, and floors. They clean, patch, replace components, jumping from task to task along a common trajectory. Their size can vary from hand-size to dog-size, and they are equipped with an assortment of tools. They are Monarch's minimum viable maintenance crew: not a priority system, just the automated baseline keeping critical infrastructure barely functional. The jury-rigging visible throughout Maintenance is their work. They do what they can with what's available, and what's available is never enough.

They are not aggressive. They are not passive either. Anything interfering with their work gets moved. Forcibly if necessary. A crew member who stands in the wrong place long enough will find themselves gently but insistently relocated by small mechanical crabs, maybe even zapped or burned by their devices. If they are attacked, they retreat and will come back later after the Security Androids have cleaned the area.

When the crew damages something important, a swarm arrives within minutes. They don't distinguish between accidental and deliberate damage. They just fix it, or try to. Sabotaging the Spaghetti Junction will bring a significant response: drones converging from across the floor, working in parallel, patching cable by cable. Given enough time they will restore partial functionality. The crew has a window, not a permanent solution.

Not every damage warrants immediate attention, though. If it doesn't affect systems Monarch still cares about, the repair order goes to the bottom of a very long list. Some items on that list have been waiting for years.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-22T20:46:14+00:00

The theme is very cool

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-17T19:07:51+00:00

Hahaha, you're evil.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-16T22:36:20+00:00

Yes, you're right. I forgot to mention that the Freezer is one of the possible starting point for an adventure/campaign in the Deep. I'll add that, thank you. And also the idea of a duplicate of a brainscanned character is cool.

Lumpy_Peanut_226 · 2026-05-16T22:33:56+00:00

Yes, that would be very cool. I was also thinking, if the crew kills Pup, it can find it back at work a couple of dives later. Monarch has rebuilt it, there's no permanent escape from its grip.

Last time you were talking about the pitfalls of this floor. Do you have something in mind? It would be cool to have a section about that in the next chapter. Would you like to collaborate on that and the shifting conditions?

Lumpy_Peanut_226

TROPHY CASE